By: Diane Benjamin
It was worth going to a few Tri-Valley School Board meetings to ask for more transparency. I hope someday they decide to live stream meetings! Of course District 87 still doesn’t.
The new transparency Tri-Valley is doing is worthless unless people READ what’s being discussed. Evidently nobody read the September 20th Superintendent’s report that was included in the documentation for the meeting. It included this jem: https://go.boarddocs.com/il/trivalley3/Board.nsf/files/CVKR3G6C0554/$file/BOE%20Meeting%20Supt%20Report%20Sept%202023.pdf
The schools want a 1% Sales Tax increase with a promise of reducing property taxes with a third of the new tax.
I predict all school districts will grab the money they receive because of the massive assessed value increase. Homeowners will get the bills next spring, they will be irate, then the schools will say “We have a way to lower your property taxes”. Just vote YES on this referendum.
(Pay more to get a little back)
I wonder what schools want to tell students to improve mental health? Something the parents aren’t allowed to know?
Thanks for the transparency Tri-Valley.
One problem though. There is a line item on the Agenda to approve the 2024 budget. Clicking on it doesn’t reveal anything but the Administrative budget. It’s up 5%.
See the new portal with September docs: https://go.boarddocs.com/il/trivalley3/Board.nsf/vpublic?open
Curious that the admin budget up 5% when teacher raises were locked into the very low single digits? Administrator pensions perhaps? How much does Tri V pay in accumulated administrative (not teacher) pensions every year, and at what rate is it growing? Playing the BS card here. This doesn’t feel reflective of sound fiscal management.Â
1/3%?!?! They’re not even trying. What a joke. Property tax relief?? Are you kidding me?? Ours went up 10%!! How much of this supposed Property tax relief is going to touch that? 🙄
Sad to see our school districts and county still think a shell game is an appropriate form of tax policy. Maybe they could also allocate some percentage to buying lottery tickets.