Bloomington-Normal school superintendents are entertaining the idea of returning a one-cent per dollar countywide sales tax for education to the ballot.
The Illinois County Schools Facility Sales Tax is an option to add a 1% sales tax that would shift facility funding away from property taxes. Fifty-seven Illinois counties have passed the ballot question since the option became available in 2007, including nearby counties such as Peoria, Livingston, Logan, Champaign, Piatt, Macon, Sangamon and Woodford.
In McLean County, the tax referendum failed in the March 2014 primary by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.
David Mouser, superintendent of Bloomington District 87, and Kristen Weikle, superintendent of Normal-based Unit 5, were asked Thursday about rumors the tax proposal could be voted on again. They and other school officials were attending the State of Public Schools panel held at Heartland Community College, and hosted by the McLean County Chamber of Commerce.
“It was literally a game-changer for us,” said Weikle, who was still superintendent of Warrensburg-Latham schools near Decatur when the tax was implemented there. “We were able to add some safety and security measures that there would have been no way we would have been able to do without that money.”
A decade ago, revenue from the tax could only be applied toward school facilities. Now, that money also can be used for security, energy efficiency, mental health providers and more. The new revenue also could make a school district less reliant on the revenue that comes from property taxes.
“We’re going to do this work because we have to,” said Mouser. “Normal Community’s gonna have to have a roof, right? Those things are going to have to happen, and so how we’re going to do it is going to be the discussion.”
With rising property values, the revenue that would come from the property taxes can be expected to increase.
“But with inflation and everything else we have seen, yes, we’re getting more revenue coming in,” said Laura O’Donnell, superintendent of the Olympia schools west of Bloomington-Normal. “But with the cost of goods and services, we pay the same amount or more for some of the things that we’re buying for our school districts."
School leaders did not say when the sales tax might get placed on the ballot. It would require the support of school boards from districts that make up at least 51% of the student population in the county to place it before voters.
The panel also discussed the changing needs of a classroom.
“We see more academic diversity and developmental diversity within a classroom than we did 15 years ago,” said O’Donnell. “For the most part of my career, you would see kids within a classroom that were plus or minus one or two, maybe, in terms of their academic skill set. At this point, you may see kids within one classroom that are plus or minus three to four grade levels.”
O’Donnell added the need for classroom space is rowing, too, despite the number of students staying the same.
“Since COVID, we are seeing some extreme behaviors from students,” said O’Donnell. “That has resulted in needing more space quite frankly, just to spread kids out and give them smaller learning environments.”
