Both Evanston school districts passed a resolution Monday night calling for the state assembly to change the tax structure so schools could raise more money.
The resolution, passed separately by Evanston/Skokie School District 65 and District 202 at their meetings Monday, calls for a change in the Illinois systems of tax caps, tax appeals and special education funding.
“We wanted to focus on issues to bring us fiscal relief,” said Jonathan Baum, a member of the District 65 school board, which serves elementary and middle schools. Baum said District 65 joined District 202, which serves Evanston Township High School, in a legislative task force to draw up the proposal.
District 65 board President Mary Rita Luecke said the resolution will be presented to state officials Tuesday.
The resolution highlighted three requests. First, the resolution asked the state legislature to replace the Consumer Price Index with the Employment Cost Index as the limit on the amount of money schools can charge in property taxes. Tax caps based on the Employment Cost Index would allow the districts to increase their tax revenue by 1 percent.
The resolution also asked the state to compensate school districts for money lost because of property tax appeals.
Finally, the resolution asked for full special education funding, especially for transportation and teacher reimbursements.
Both districts will post the resolution on their Web sites with a link to the state legislature’s Web site attached to inform parents about the budget situation at both the local and state level. Baum said this will encourage parents to contact their representatives directly.
“This will get the ball rolling, and involve the community to put some pressure on our legislators,” said District 202 board member Ross Friedman, who worked on the joint legislation action committee that created the resolution.
Also at the District 65 board meeting, the board released a calendar for the budget process, which must be filed by Sept. 30.
The district will present a preliminary budget for this year at the July 6 board meeting. The district will hold a public hearing on Sept. 13 to discuss the final 2004-05 budget, which will be adopted at a special meeting Sept. 27.
Luecke added that the district already is working on considering possible cuts for the 2005-06 school year. She said she would like to get much of the budget planning done for 2005-06 as soon as possible.
The district most likely would begin by looking at recommendations presented by the Citizens’ Budget Committee, she said. Luecke said she would like the board to start reviewing larger programs that possibly could be cut and looking at cuts on the middle school level for next year.
Monday’s District 65 meeting began in unique fashion, with a special recognition ceremony for students and teachers.
The board congratulated seventh and eighth grade students at Nichols Middle School who took first place in the national Wordmasters competition and honored teachers selected to study at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. The awards ceremony ended with a performance by the state competition qualifying King Lab School choir.
“It’s so refreshing and a fabulous change to see such a happy and positive opening to a board meeting,” said District 65 school board member Julie Chernoff.
