Hanover and River Forest to hold school tax votes

The Hanover and River Forest school districts will ask voters to raise property taxes for schools on May 7 — each for very different reasons.

Hanover Community Schools wants to build a new school as Cedar Lake’s population continues to grow. As River Forest faces losing more than $600,000 per year to property tax caps in 2020, it is asking voters to keep its school bus routes.

Hanover Community Schools

Hanover is asking voters for a $44 million capital referendum that would pay for a new school for grades 3-5 just south of its middle school, 10631 W 141st Ave.

The referendum would also pay for a new roof at Lincoln Elementary and additions at the middle school and high school. If passed, it would levy up to 56 cents per $100 assessed valuation.

The new 100,000-plus square foot intermediate school would have 30 classrooms and the capacity for 750 students, officials said. It would open in August 2021.

The plan is to shift third and fourth grades from Jane Ball and Lincoln elementaries and fifth grade from the middle school, Superintendent Mary TracyMacAulay said Wednesday during a presentation at Hanover Central High School.

About 100 residents attended.

Currently, those three schools are cramped for space, Tracy-MacAulay said. There is only one open classroom at both elementary schools and zero classrooms available at the middle school.

Fifth grade was just moved to the middle school this year, causing concerns for overcrowding.

The new building would free up an estimated 400 students between all three schools, she said, adding it was a better plan than adding portable classroom trailers outside school buildings.

At Hanover Central, the proposal is to construct a new community building with locker rooms, restrooms and concessions. It would also build practice fields just west of the high school.

At Hanover Middle School, the referendum would fund a resource center addition where it plans to base its bus operations. New service bays would allow it to hire a full-time mechanic, cutting down maintenance costs, officials said.

It would also move its transportation, food service, operations and IT managers there.

In recent years, Cedar Lake’s student population has grown nearly two years ahead of projections, Business Manager Adam Minth said.

The question for Cedar Lake residents is how to best manage that growth.

“You guys are hitting me already (with taxes),” said resident Rose Kleine. “These things really do hit us, and especially business people. Every time you do this, it’s hitting us again and again and again.”

“I don’t have a problem with (money) going into education,” she said. “If you do this, get creative in every way you can.”

Tracy-MacAulay said she was sympathetic.

“We certainly don’t want to be here asking for money,” she said. “The reality is our schools have increased so rapidly, there’s no end in sight.”

The school district passed an operating referendum in 2015, which along with some bond refinancing has helped it avoid the fate of other northern Lake County school districts, which may lose millions when full property tax caps take effect in 2020. That referendum has also allowed it to grow its savings and pay for some teachers.

The district has started a “rainy day fund” which it estimates will have about $3 million in June.

Robert Tewell and Amanda Robson, both 39, have lived in Cedar Lake for about eight years. Each said they would support the referendum. They have two children, 10 and 13 in school.

“I would like for them to possibly stop some of these subdivisions from opening, so we can slow the growth,” Robson, a Hammond native said. “I see the education my kids are getting. And if it’s as small cost to us...and you don’t have to sacrifice programs, then I’m for it.”

Tewell said he would prefer having another full elementary school, rather than have kids move to a second school before going to middle school.

Their youngest child has “come a long way” academically since transferring from a Catholic school, partly from being around more kids, he said.

“I want to keep it that way,” said Tewell, a Chicago native. “If that’s what going to help out to keep it a grade A, then I’m all for it.”

State figures show Hanover now has about 200 more students than in 2014-15. In total, nearly 2,400 students attend its two elementaries, middle and high school.

River Forest

The River Forest Community School Corp. will ask voters for another referendum in May for teachers, staff, transportation and educational programs.

In anticipates it will lose more than $600,000 per year when full property tax caps hit Lake County in 2020, Assistant Superintendent Kevin Trezak said.

The main purpose is to help close that anticipated budget gap, he said.

Voters passed a school tax levy that raised 42 cents per $100 valuation for the school budget in 2015. In May, the school district is asking voters to raise that to up to $1.19 per $100 valuation over the next seven years.

Without additional money, River Forest could cut all school bus routes — minus special education, which is required by law, he said. Smaller cuts would also be considered.

“We are really trying to get out in front of this,” Trezak said. “It would be a horrible situation for our community to do that.”

River Forest has about 1,660 students near New Chicago in four schools: two elementary, one middle and one high school.

Both referendums were approved by the Lake County board of elections Tuesday.