The Unit 5 school board on Wednesday approved the 2025 tax levy and heard from Carlock community members concerned about the potential closing of the elementary school there.
The school board unanimously approved both resolutions related to the levy that remains unchanged from the $165.8 million total presented in November.
Thomas Hoerr, director of financial services, said he anticipates Unit 5 to continue having one of the lowest tax rates in the county. In 2024, it wound up being the third lowest. This year, Hoerr said it dropped about 25 cents.
“If other districts’ tax rates stay the same for the 2025 levy, Unit 5 will probably move over into that number two position, or possibly even the first position,” he said, adding the drop in the tax rate will help minimize the impact of rising EAV [Equalized assessed value] issues.
Superintendent Kristen Weikle also mentioned during the meeting the revenue Unit 5 received from the County Schools Facilities Tax for the month of September was about $1.3 million, while $6.5 million in property tax abatement was budgeted because of the revenue coming in from the tax.
Carlock school
In all, 20 public commenters spoke in opposition to the possible closure of Carlock Elementary School, something Cropper GIS is leaning toward recommending as part of an ongoing Unit 5 enrollment study.
“The effects on a community after school closure are devastating,” said Carlock Mayor Rhonda Baer.
Potential effects include decreased population, business closures, changes to the social fabric of the area and academic effects for students when forced to go elsewhere, she said.
“Carlock has been growing and is planning for continued growth,” said Baer. “Why not work with us instead of destroying us? Let us take some of those kids from your overcrowded schools until the fruits of our hard work are realized.”
"Please do not reduce Carlock Elementary to a line item. Measure it by the lives it has protected, the children it continues to nurture, and the community it still holds together,” said Aryelle Theonnes, a former student of Carlock Elementary. “Carlock Elementary matters and it is worth fighting for.”
Another reason cited for opposition was a referendum passed in 2023 that, at the time, pushed off the threat of closing the school.
“Many families voted yes based on that assurance,” said Lacey Fritsch. “Closing Carlock now breaks that promise and damages the trust between this board and our community.”
Weikle said the school board is still in the early stages of planning. A vote from Unit 5 will not come until April at the earliest because final recommendations from Cropper GIS will not arrive until March.
“There are a lot of factors that we're looking at," she said. "And you know, part of it is looking at where our students reside.”
Weikle added keeping enrollments at manageable levels for specific schools is the goal. Ideally, class sizes would be kept low.
“We have capacity in some other schools to be able to take some of the students currently routed at those schools that are kind of overcrowded and move them elsewhere,” said Weikle. “But to do so, we need to assess the boundaries."
One measure already taken by Unit 5 is leasing portable classrooms.
“We currently have eight portables at four of our schools, and we're going to have to add portables to another school, I think, next year,” said Weikle.
Certain areas within the district are considered open attendance, meaning the students residing there have more than one school that may be possible to attend.
“We do try to get some families to go to schools where we have space,” said Weikle. “In some cases, families are not interested, maybe due to the distance to where they live, maybe they don't have a reliable vehicle, there’s a lot of factors as to why.”
