BBCHS survey results show slight majority in favor of referendum

Board Vice President Mike O’Gorman said the purpose of the special meeting will be to go over questions or concerns board members might have. A date for the special meeting has not yet been announced.

“Maybe it’s very clear to people at the end of that [meeting], if not, it puts us into a better position for that first week in August when we need to make a decision,” O’Gorman said.

Superintendent Matt Vosberg also reviewed results of a recent phone survey which asked 150 registered voters in the community about their feelings toward the potential referendum.

The survey was conducted June 4-12 by Public Opinion Strategies.

“Our target was over 200 [responses], so we were a little disappointed there,” Vosberg said. “We did talk to our consultants about that number. They’d like to get to 200 as well, maybe 250, but they did say 150 is what they get in other communities. It’s really hard to get people to answer their phone to do surveys now.”

Survey takers were read the proposed referendum and asked whether or not they would support it if the election were held today.

The proposed ballot measure reads:

“Shall the Board of Education of Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School District Number 307, Kankakee County, Illinois, alter, repair and equip the Bradley-Bourbonnais High School Building, including installing safety, security and technology improvements, improving heating, cooling and ventilation systems, constructing an addition to eliminate mobile classrooms, renovating labs and other learning spaces, expanding cafeteria and food service areas and making site improvements and issue bonds of said School District to the amount of [$49 million] for the purpose of paying the costs thereof?”

The results indicated 52 percent said yes, 26 percent said no, and about 23 percent were undecided.

Vosberg said if the district goes forward with the referendum, the ideal outcome would be to maintain that slight majority.

“[The consultant] hasn’t seen districts be able to convince anybody to flip, and even the undecided [but] leaning yes, they are really hard to move,” he said. “Fifty-two-percent is at the bottom end of the number we want.”

Vosberg noted that another school district put out the same kind of survey and had a response of 51 percent in favor, then was able to pass its referendum at 50.3 percent.

“We would have to run a really, really strong campaign to maintain that number,” he said.

PROPERTY TAX HIKE

Survey takers were asked whether or not their vote would change with the knowledge that the owner of a $200,000 home would pay $287 more per year in taxes.

About 48 percent said the knowledge of the tax impact made no difference, and 22 percent said they were more likely to support the referendum and 29 percent said they were less likely to support it.

They were also asked if they would support the referendum if the amount of the bond issue was reduced from $49 million down to $30 million by “not including funding that would solve hallway congestion issues, consolidate P.E. spaces away from academic spaces, and solve the student drop-off bottleneck.”

Support for the referendum remained almost the same when posed with the lower price point, with 52 percent responding yes, 31 percent responding no, and the rest undecided.

Another question asked if an entirely new high school should be built instead of updating the current one, the cost of which would be $160 million. Overwhelmingly, the response was no.

NEW SCHOOL NOT FAVORED

About 74 percent of people said they would prefer to update the existing school for $49 million, and 16 percent favored building a new school for $160 million.

Vosberg noted the district is considering requesting proposals from solar panel companies to utilize the 119-acre farm land that the district purchased years ago with the intention of building a new campus.

When asked what letter grade — from A to F — they would give BBCHS facilities, more than one third (36 percent) said they did not have enough information to judge, and another 35 percent gave it an A or B and 7 percent gave it a D or F.

“I think this is helpful,” Vosberg said. “Even though they said you are not going to persuade people to flip on votes, it’s a large percentage that don’t think they have enough information to rate the facilities. That’s an opportunity for us to continue to educate taxpayers.”

The district hosted four community forums regarding the school’s facilities needs and how a proposed referendum would address them.

Vosberg said attendance totaled about 50 people for all four meetings added together.

“There were some parents from our elementary feeders that were really surprised about our situation with kids going out to the portable classrooms,” he said. “They didn’t have any idea that we were doing that.”