THANK YOU FOR VOTING!

On August 12, 2019, the St. Charles Public Schools Board passed a resolution calling a special election for November 5, 2019.  School District voters are being asked to consider two ballot questions that would authorize the District to issue bonds for up to $18,500,000.  The proceeds from the bonds will be used to help pay for 11 facility solutions deemed needs and priorities of the District.

The Board's action on August 12th was the culmination of a series of events dating back to 2016.  The District's facility issues have not gone away, and after two failed referendum attempts in 2016, the District listened to stakeholders and went back to the drawing board. 

During the 2017-2018 school year, the School Board recognized the need for a full facility assessment and the development of a facility improvement plan that mapped out the District's issues, solutions for the issues, cost estimates for each solution, and strategies for funding each solution.  The Board identified the following issues as key issues that the District needed solutions for:

• Space for Community Ed Programs (ECFE, School Readiness/Preschool, Early Childhood Special Education, and SACC)
• Space for multi-purpose indoor recreation
• Space for student and community gatherings and events (a commons area)
• Security improvements at both buildings
• Updates to multiple instructional areas (we have a number of areas that need to be improved and brought into the 21st Century:  Science, CTE, elective programming, and our high school media center)
• Food Service serving, prep, and storage areas
• Updates to a number of restrooms (both in our buildings and outside) to promote better accessibility
• Improvements to outdoor facility competition, practice, and spectator areas*
• Access to green space for physical education, outdoor activities programs, and the potential future growth of our schools*
• Parking improvements to both campuses*

In October of 2018, the School Board formed a 27 community member task force to assist the District in exploring solutions for the issues.  The Task Force met regularly from October, 2018 through May, 2019.  Their work resulted in two recommendations being made to the School Board.  The first recommendation was for the Board to officially adopt the working facility improvement plan that the Task Force assisted with which included more than 100 solutions for District facility issues, cost estimates, and funding strategies for the solutions.  The second recommendation was for the School Board to ask District voters to consider helping to fund 11 of the solutions built into the plan that were identified as key solutions to help address our primary facility issues.  The Board officially adopted both recommendations.

To learn more about the events that have lead up to the election explore the links under "Quick Links" on the left side of the screen.  The links include information on the solutions the District is asking the community to consider, the estimated tax impact of the solutions, where/when to vote, Frequently Asked Questions, and provide an opportunity for you to submit your own questions.  There is a lot of information chronicling the work of our Community Facility Task Force that you can review by clicking the links titled, "Task Force Timeline" and "Facility Task Force Website."

*The issues with an asterisk have solutions built into our facility plan, but are not part of the referendum proposal.  Per the recommendations of our Facility Task Force the District plans to address these issues over time using alternative funding options.