The buildings in Oswego School District 308 continue to age.

“The average age of our buildings across the whole district right now is 29 years old,” Dist. 308 Chief Communications Officer Theresa Komitas said.

Komitas spoke during a June 2 town hall meeting at Boulder Hill Elementary School about a proposal to put a $317 million bond referendum on the Nov. 3 general election ballot to address aging infrastructure needs throughout the district.

The last time voters approved a District 308 bond referendum was in 2006. The $450 million referendum funded school construction projects.

Seventeen of the district’s schools are rated poor on a facility condition index. As part of the proposed referendum, 79% of the funds would go toward critical infrastructure, including improvements to HVAC systems and roof replacement.

Flooring, plumbing, electrical and building exterior improvements also are being proposed.

As officials pointed out, the district quickly expanded from just six schools to 22 schools to meet the rapid growth in Oswego in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Seventeen new schools were built in just 12 years.

The district’s enrollment surged from about 4,000 students in 1992 to more than 17,000 students in 2013.

“The problem is that most of our buildings were built at the same time,” Komitas said to those attending the town hall meeting. “So 80% of our buildings were built within the time period of 1995 to 2010, which means that they’re all aging at the same time.”

The school district serves portions of Kendall, Will and Kane counties. The referendum would fund facility improvements at all of the district’s schools.

District officials said they have identified about $317 million in facility needs over the next 10 years across all the district’s schools.

In the proposed referendum, 12% of the funds would go toward safety and security improvements, with another 9% toward educational improvements.

Deputy superintendent Heather Kincaid talk about the district’s need and desire to keep “our students safe while they’re in school.”

The safety and security upgrades would include improvements to secure entry vestibules, fire protection systems, intercoms and exterior lighting and access controls.

Educational improvements would include:

• separation of gym and cafeteria spaces for two elementary schools currently using shared space,
• repurposed computer labs in the district’s junior high schools
• updated science labs at Oswego High School
• improvements of the athletic fields at both Oswego and Oswego East high schools.

Because the district is retiring existing long-term debt at the same time, homeowners would see a decrease in the debt service portion of their property taxes, even if the referendum is approved, officials said.

For a home with a fair market value of $300,000, residents would pay about $100 less per year starting in 2028, and an additional $56 less beginning in 2036, the district said.

More information about the proposed referendum is available at sd308.org/update308. The School Board is set to decide in August whether to put the referendum question on the Nov. 3 ballot.