20 School Referendums on IL Ballots this November (not Evanston)
I'll see you all in a week while I crawl into a hole
This is the one and only post I will make every four years about national political stuff on this blog. Please don’t get into national political fights in the comments, I will yell at you and then delete your comment.
You should go vote, if nothing else because it checks a box on your public record1. If you’re in Evanston, I’ve always found the easiest way to vote is at City Hall, which still has early voting tomorrow on Monday Nov 4. I’ve heard there are lines this year but I’ve never encountered lines there and the poll workers there are the friendliest.
I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, but I used to work with ballotready.org and I cannot recommend them enough as a source of non-partisan information. They’re especially useful when it comes to judges and figuring out who is and is not cool with the Illinois Bar, which seems like a bare minimum for a judge.
A reader, academic at Northwestern2, and friend of the blog, Sepehr Vakil wrote piece on the election that I am recommending to those, especially those with strong feelings about stuff going on in the Middle East - which I know is an important cause to many Evanstonians.
If you don’t like his post, go fight in his comments not mine! 🤣
School Referendums
For those who have been discussing school district referendums, there are 20 of them on Illinois ballots this year for various construction projections. This is because Illinois School Code requires a referendum for construction projects - something District 65 should’ve done with the Foster School but elected not to do - which is why we;
Don’t have enough money for the full project, including both construction and non-construction costs
Have to pay a $3.25 million dollar payment on the lease certificate out of general education funds
You can read more about that in my post on the Grossi memos.
The IASB has a full list of referendums I have included below and includes our neighbors to the west, Park Ridge and Skokie District 64.
Arthur CUSD 305, $24.6 million, to renovate Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond High School.
Barrington CUSD 220, $64 million, to build and equip an auditorium and for an addition to Barrington High School.
Bloomingdale SD 13, $29.7 million, to alter, repair, and equip school buildings, including installing new security systems and network cabling.
Bradley-Bourbonnais CHSD 307, $62 million, to alter, repair, and equip Bradley-Bourbonnais High School.
Cary CCSD 26, $20 million, to alter, repair, and equip existing buildings, including safety and security improvements.
Central SD 301, in Burlington, $224.6 million, to build and equip a new high school building, including construction of an outdoor athletic stadium, a field house, and athletic fields on the new high school site.
Golf SD 67, $26.3 million, to alter, repair, and equip two buildings, including removal of asbestos.
Indian Prairie CUSD 204, $420 million, to alter, repair, and equip existing school buildings.
Mahomet-Seymour CUSD 3, $112.8 million, to build and equip both a new elementary and junior high building.
Mundelein CHSD 120, $149.5 million, to alter, repair, and equip existing buildings and facilities.
Mount Prospect SD 57, $85 million, to build a new middle school building, and to alter and repair existing buildings.
Park Ridge-Niles SD 64, $89.1 million, to repair and equip existing buildings.
Prairie Central CUSD 8, in Fairbury, $45 million, to build and equip an elementary building, and to alter, repair, and equip the high school, middle school, and upper elementary school buildings.
Putnam County CCSD 535, $34 million, to alter, repair, and equip school buildings, including health/life safety improvements and updates to the HVAC systems.
Rockridge CUSD 300, $33 million, to build and equip a new elementary school building.
Salt Creek SD 48, $48 million, to build additions and alter, repair, and equip two elementary buildings and one middle school building.
Staunton CUSD 6, $26.1 million, to alter, repair, and equip school buildings with safety and security improvements and increase accessibility with ADA compliance.
Westmont CUSD 201, $74.6 million, to build two new elementary buildings, and improve the sites of existing school buildings.
West Prairie CUSD 103, in Colchester, $4 million, to build and equip a vocational, agricultural, and science building and construct an athletic field facility.
Wheaton Warrenville CUSD 200, $151.5 million, to construct additions to alter, repair, equip and improve the sites of three middle school buildings.
Chicago Public Schools
If you’re a Chicago reader (I have a few!), the only interesting thing on the ballot are the first-time elections for the CPS School Board. Chicago seems to have figured out the most chaotic way possible to implement an elected board. To add to the confusion, it is on the November ballot instead of the standard municipal-cycle April ballot.
In terms of composition;
Right now the CPS board is 7 appointed members. People keep resigning, including the president and the previous board.
After November 5 2024, there will be 11 appointed members and 10 elected members for a board of 21.
After Nov. 2026, 20 members plus the president will be elected.
I don’t have any suggestions for how to vote in that election but the folks at ballotready.org have done a good job compiling information on the candidates for the 10 zones.
See you all on the flip-side.
People may not know this but your voting record (that you voted, not who you voted for) is public record. In primaries, the ballot you pull (democrat, republican, or independent) is also recorded and is public information. You can buy the voter file in IL for a mere $500, but you have to be a registered political organization. If any readers here are considering a run for the school board office, you should buy this file to use for targeting purposes.
Some of his new research is on the Foster School - stay tuned, it sounds interesting.
There are something like 72 judges on the ballot this year. While I'm all-for democracy around things including judges, this is really dragging the voting process down and making long lines for voting in-person due to the length of the ballot. I think it took me around 45 minutes to fill out my mail-in ballot including judge research through sites like Injustice Watch.
Please do your research in advance and create an advance list of how you will vote before going to a polling place. Or, better yet (in the future), get a mail-in ballot, fill it out in advance and drop it off in a ballot box (for Evanston voters, it's inside the Civic Center).
We have much better and more equitable voting systems in IL than in many other states, but we aren't perfect and long lines in some places happen. If you want to avoid that, vote early and, more importantly vote by advance ballot.
You don't have to purchase the entire state voter file for $500 - the voter file for Evanston or D65 is significantly cheaper at $25 - still have to be a registered political organization but that's relatively easy too https://www.elections.il.gov/VotingAndRegistrationSystems/ComputerizedVoterData.aspx