Villa Park-based District 45 is asking voters in this month’s primary election to approve an operating tax rate increase that would raise an additional $4.3 million a year.

The funds would allow the elementary school district to avert significant budget cuts and replenish its reserves. If voters approve the request, the owner of a $350,000 house would pay an estimated $299 more in annual property taxes to the district.

“First and foremost, our goal is to continue being fiscally responsible, make sure that we close the budget gap, so that we are not operating on a deficit budget, and then carefully begin to build the fund balance back up,” Superintendent Brian Graber said.

Voters last approved a district operating tax rate increase 26 years ago. The district is projected to end fiscal 2026 with a fund balance equal to 15.7% of its operating costs.

“It’s really unsustainable for us to be able to continue with the way that we’ve been going,” Graber said at a virtual forum, adding that targeted cuts have not been enough to “level us off and to get us in a good position moving forward.”

The district says the cost of education has increased “exponentially” since the pandemic.

Student needs, especially since COVID, have “increased significantly,” Graber said, noting that the district has added positions in the areas of social work, school psychology and teaching assistants to help support students.

The district warns that student academic gains are at risk. Over the past seven years, the district has “completely overhauled” curriculum, upgraded technology and increased social-emotional supports. Reading scores, for instance, have more than doubled over the past four years, Graber said.

“So we know that we’ve really tapped into some good progress, and really what we’re looking for is just to be able to maintain that and not have to implement significant cuts or reductions that would interrupt that or interfere with the momentum that we have right now,” he said in an interview.

According to the Illinois Report Card, the district is funded at 83% of its adequacy target — the calculated cost to educate students based on factors outlined in the state’s evidence-based school funding program.

Citing report card data, the district receives about 26% of its funding from state and federal sources, compared to about 36% in the average Illinois district.

“So we’re more heavily reliant on local sources of funding, and our local sources of funding are heavily, heavily residential,” Graber said.

The proposed tax increase comes six years after voters backed a request to borrow money by issuing bonds to build an early childhood center, implement full-day kindergarten and make other improvements.

“That $30 million project, eventually, because of COVID, because of supply chain costs, because of increased labor costs … became a $36 million project,” Graber said.

According to the district, six central office positions have been eliminated. Officials have discussed deeper cuts if voters reject the request on the March 17 ballots.

“Over the course of the next couple of years, we’d be looking at significant certified staff reduction, somewhere in the area of 30 to 40 staff members, which would result in increasing our class sizes and providing less support to our students and to our teachers,” Graber said.

The district would also look at extracurricular reductions, among other measures.

The district enrolls around 3,100 students.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20260304/news/why-district-45-is-asking-voters-for-tax-increase/