By: Diane Benjamin
See this WGLT article: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-04-24/d87-optimistic-but-acknowledges-challenges-of-banning-cell-phones-at-bhs
District 87 is planning to lower their property tax grab by $2 million, which is 1/3 of a revenue estimate they plan to receive from the 1% Sales Tax.
Don’t expect your property taxes to go down. Your assessed values will be going up. If District 87 wants to collect more than ($51,788,664.50 – 2,000,000 =) $49,788,664.50, your taxes will go up.
Where did $51,788,664.50 come from? That is the amount they collected last year: PDF page 23 https://www.mcleancountyil.gov/DocumentCenter/View/28170/Districts-001-100?bidId=
If the School Board passes a levy higher than $49,788,664.50 you were lied to.
The same disclosures are available for every taxing body. They are listed by District number: https://www.mcleancountyil.gov/2080/Tax-Year-2023-Distribution-7-Released-11
Find the tax District number here: https://mcleancountyil.gov/DocumentCenter/View/21445/Alphabetic-List-of-Taxing-Districts-2022?bidId=
The push to ban student cell phones is not about learning distractions. It is about school admins and teachers fears of getting recorded breaking the law and/or violating policies. Or the fights being blasted all over social media.
Lawsuit potential is huge with these meddling kids being able to record events the teachers union would rather you not see.
You’ve been watching too much Scooby Do ” I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for theses meddling kids…”
You clearly havent been in a classroom recently. Cell phones are a MAJOR issue..
Can we all called that buffoon Mouser??
I mean that guy said over & over how property taxes would go down if everyone voted for the ridiculous additional tax on ourselves!!
He is the superintendent of District #87, but won’t send his kids to District #87… He made sure they can still go to Tri Valley schools.
He is a total BUFFOON!!
a similar question…..will tariffs be paused, reinstated, raised, lowered, ended….no one knows….
Well we already know D87 is getting a 7.75% tax hike for this year, the board approved Mouser’s new $55.6 million tax levy last December. We will all get those new avg 7.75% higher property tax bills in the next two weeks.
Any property tax “relief” won’t come until May of 2026, when I predict we will get a property tax hike again due to schools asking for more revenue from the higher assessed home values.
Remember, it’s $2 million divided by 36,000 taxable parcels in Bloomington, which is an average $55 of “tax relief” per property. Wow, thanks so much government schools, thanks for giving me back a small slice of my new higher sales tax!
Meanwhile, our sales tax burden will go up by $165 per household. ($6 million is what Mouser expects to get from the sales tax).
Only in Illinois can a net tax hike be called “tax relief.” Meanwhile, D87 enrollment is down 15% since 2019, but they jacked up property taxes by 28% despite way less kids.
https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2024-12-18/district-87-and-unit-5-boards-approve-sales-tax-referendum-question-for-april-ballot
As far as being successful as an organization goes, not having enough money isn’t the issue.
Look at what the teachers and students said in surveys taken on various subjects.
http://www.5-essentials.org/illinois/5e/2024/
If you pull out all of the numbers for the various survey questions given to teachers and students centered around feeling safe this is what you’ll find.
On a scale from 1-99 (1 being very weak, 99 being very strong)
Averaging the schools scores.
District 87 Teachers feel very unsafe – 15
District 87 Students feel mostly unsafe – 35
Unit 5 Teachers feel mostly unsafe – 29
Unit 5 Students feel unsafe – 44
We are just burning money in McLean County education until administration, teachers and parents address this issue.
Here’ how the teachers feel about being safe in their D87 schools (Range 1-99)
Bloomington High School – 26
Bloomington Jr High School – 1
Bent Elem School – 18
Irving Elementary School – 1
Oakland Elementary School – 23
Sheridan Elem School – 1
Stevenson Elem School – 11
Washington Elem School – 42
Run for school board and be the change