Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 again declared its intention to borrow $26 million for construction projects in order to offer full-day kindergarten at each elementary school, though a formal vote to take on the debt may not occur until next month.
At the same time, four board members said they would be opposed to charging parents tuition in order to cover a portion of the more than $1 million in additional, annual operating expenses associated with a full-day kindergarten program.
The board on Oct. 21 held a public hearing to formally announce plans to issue $25.95 million in working cash bonds in order to build additions onto the district’s five elementary schools and remodel and expand Jefferson School, the district’s early childhood center, in order to update the building and also relocate administrative offices there.
The board was told that a resolution allowing the district to borrow the money will likely go before the board for a formal vote in November. The board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for Nov. 18 at Roosevelt School.
The bonds are slated to be paid off in 14 years. How much the district will pay in interest will be determined once the interest rate is known.
The board in September previously voted 5-2 to pursue a $25.95 million bond issue as a way of paying for new construction, which officials said is needed in order to house more students who will be attending school at the same time. Board members Gareth Kennedy and Tom Sotos voted against the motion.
Sotos, who previously raised questions and concerns about the full-day kindergarten plan, referred to full-day kindergarten as a “want” rather than a “need” for the district during the board’s Oct. 21 public hearing. He said he did not want future boards to be forced to go to referendum to raise taxes in order to cover other necessary expenses for the district that it cannot afford due to the kindergarten bond issue.
“I support full-day kindergarten,” Sotos said. “However, we are taxing the district’s budget and the district’s borrowing power to do it.”
Adam Parisi, chief school business official for District 64, said the district will have the ability to borrow up to $11 million in additional funds for other expenses “in the next year or two.”
The last time District 64 went to voters to increase the district’s tax rate was in 2007. Voters ultimately approved the referendum.
Board member Rebecca Little countered Sotos by saying she believes full-day kindergarten is an “educational need” and said she is “comfortable” that future district needs will still be addressed.
No members of the public provided comment during the public hearing.
For the owner of a $350,000 home, the cost toward paying off the debt will be about $125 per year, Parisi said in September. This is an amount taxpayers have already been paying to the district for debt service, so it will not be reflected as an additional increase on their tax bills, said board member Phyllis Lubinski.
The building additions and other construction that will be funded through the $25.95 million bond issue will vary school by school, according to proposals shared with the board. Not all of the additions will house kindergarten classrooms, as these classrooms may be created elsewhere in the building, Parisi said.
Each was developed with input from the building principals, he said.
At Franklin School, five kindergarten classrooms will be created in one area, while construction work will also include turning two existing classrooms into a multi-purpose room that can be used as a cafeteria, gym or performing space, the board was told.
“There are a couple of buildings where we’re doing more than just kindergarten because of the need,” said Superintendent Eric Olson.
Kennedy questioned whether this work is necessary.
“It’s burying the cost of a multi-purpose room in what’s supposed to be an all-day kindergarten project,” he said.
At Carpenter School, the new addition will house five kindergarten classrooms, with the existing kindergarten converted to other uses, Parisi said. At Field School, an addition, which will be able to accommodate a second floor in the future, will require some demolition to the building and will include four kindergarten classes and several intervention and resource rooms, he said.
Roosevelt School will have the smallest addition, which will accommodate music and art classes, while the auditorium will be turned into a learning resource center with some music space, and the old LRC will be turned into kindergarten classrooms, Parisi said.
At Washington, which had a $4.9 million two-story addition added in 2020, a portion of another part of the school will be demolished in order to construct a single-floor, L-shaped addition, the board was told.
Specific construction plans for each school will be shared with parents and the community at a later date, Olson said.
“We will have an evening at each school where people will be able to see (the) level of detail on each of the plans,” he said.
The goal is for the board to approve construction bids during a special meeting in early February so that work can begin in March and full-day kindergarten can be offered in the fall, Parisi said.
Plans for Jefferson School must also be approved by the village of Niles, and plans for the other schools must be approved by the city of Park Ridge.
In addition to the construction costs, full-day kindergarten will add another $1.2 million in annual staff salaries and benefits, district officials reported. There will also be “one-time set-up costs” for the classrooms totaling $198,181 and annual curriculum and technology costs of $16,610, the board was told.
To cover some of this new expense, the board reviewed potential tuition scenarios, ranging from a low of $180 per student per year — or $1 per day — to a high of $4,320 per student per year, which equates to $24 per day or the cost of the current extended day kindergarten program in District 64.
The extended day program would be eliminated if District 64 adopts a full-day kindergarten program.
Olson noted that most area suburban school districts that have full-day kindergarten do not charge a fee for children to attend. Of 16 area districts, only Aptakisic-Tripp District 102 is tuition-based, the board was told.
“Honestly, it turns my stomach that we would charge tuition for a public school,” Little said. “The public schools were literally invented to be the great equalizer, and charging tuition completely goes against that. I think full-day kindergarten is a community good and it should be treated as that.”
Board members Carol Sales and Nicole Woitowich agreed.
“There aren’t fees associated with other grades,” Woitowich noted. “Why make this a separate, distinct entity? I just don’t agree with that.”
Board President Denise Pearl suggested that charging tuition will send students to other schools and that District 64 should be welcoming to its students from the very beginning.
Board member Lubinski said she would support a tuition-based kindergarten, while Sotos said he did not believe the district has the money to fund all-day kindergarten without additional parental funding.
“We wouldn’t be out of line as a district to move forward as a fee-based program until it becomes a (state) mandate,” Sotos said.
Pearl called the additional annual cost for full-day kindergarten a “small amount” within the district’s $83 million budget and said she believed future budgets will cover it as a priority expense.
Additional discussion of the full-day kindergarten plan will take place at the board’s next meeting, Pearl said.
