Yorkville District 115 wants building referendum support ‘driven by the community’

With the vote on a school building referendum less than two months away, Yorkville School District 115 is hosting a series of town halls to provide the community everything it needs to know before casting a vote.

Voters will decide on the March 17 primary ballot whether to grant the district’s request for issuing $275 million in bonds to build new schools and expanded facilities to meet the demands of the district’s growing population.

The six town halls will be held over several weeks, beginning Jan. 28.

What’s in the building plan

The proposed project includes constructing a new middle school and a new elementary school. The designs also include a new performing arts center and a field house auditorium outside Yorkville High School.

A new academic wing also is designed for the high school with other renovations throughout the entire building. The plan also includes converting a current elementary school into an early childhood center.

If the $275 million bond plan is approved, the owner of a home with a median market value of $323,700 would pay an additional $577 annually in property taxes to pay for the construction, according to the district. A tax calculator is available on the district’s site.

Student enrollment across the district grew from 6,356 in 2021-22 to 7,309 students in 2025. Over the next five years, the district is projecting another 825 students, according to a district-funded demography study.

This has led to what school officials have called a capacity crisis with classrooms “bursting at the seams.” The study found several current school buildings are “not adequate for current and projected enrollment.”

Yorkville 115 is completing construction on temporary classroom structures outside three elementary schools to provide extra space for their students. Pictured, the nearly complete structure at Grande Reserve Elementary School. — (file photo) Seen during construction completion, the Yorkville School District 115 created three temporary classroom structures for $3.9 million. The district said the additional buildings were needed to house student populations that were already pushing current classrooms to their capacity max. Students are now taking classes in the pictured building outside Grande Reserve Elementary School. (Photo Provided By Brent Edwards )

During a state of the district address, Superintendent Matt Zediker said the current school facilities fall far short of what the community deserves.

“Classes are being taught in hallways and other programming is taking place in inadequate spaces,” Zediker said. “We have special ed classes held in math classrooms that don’t have proper accessibility to bathrooms. We’re not able to offer all the extracurricular activities our kids and families want.”

Enrollment has tripled in the past 20 years, according to an Illinois State Board of Education report.

Community investment

Zediker said the series of town hall meetings are an opportunity for residents to engage, listen and ask questions, to ensure each person has the factual information they need to make their decision.

“Any decisions this large that impact the entire community need to have a community voice in it and be driven by the community,” Zediker said in an interview. “It’s been really important for my team to make sure transparency and communication are prioritized.”

Zediker said in addition to new school buildings to address overcrowding, expanding facilities helps the district standardize grade levels across all its schools.

He said the referendum represents an investment in the community.

“Communities are only as good as their public school system, and public school systems are only as good as the community support that surrounds it,” Zediker said. “Even folks that don’t have students in the district will benefit from a safer community and a thriving community. Also, one of the leading connectors to increasing property values is a strong school system.”

The Yorkville School District 115 is requesting the city to annex and rezone a 106 acre property (left) and to rezone a 45 acre property adjacent to their high school campus (right). The property to the left will be the site of a new school building if the public referendum passes. (Photo Provided By The City of Yorkville)

Zediker said feedback gathered during a series of earlier public listening sessions led to the district incorporating some of the community’s main desires, including a new performing arts center and an athletic field house. He said it was important to ensure the community’s input was constructed into the overall plans.

Within the plans, the freshmen located in the Academy would be transferred to the expanded main high school building, with the Academy possibly reimagined for technical education spaces and continued use for extracurricular activities.

In city meetings there have been some talks of District 115 potentially giving some of its recently purchased 106 acres for a new school, to the Bristol Kendall Fire Protection District for a new fire station.

Yorkville High School, Game Farm Road, Yorkville (Shea Lazansky)

Zediker said discussions still are in the early stages and the district will know more after the election. He said the proposal represents that the district “wants to be good collaborative partners with other entities.”

If the building referendum passes, construction is anticipated to begin in fall 2026. The district said the goal is to welcome the first students into the new schools in the fall of 2028.