District 158’s Board of Education candidates discuss balancing a quality education while responding to local taxpayer burden
My Huntley News asked the 10 District 158 Board of Education candidates how they would confront local taxpayer burden, but still allow students in the district to receive a quality education. Their responses were as follows:
The newcomers
Dana Dalton-Wiley:
“I think as a district we just have to look inward and ask, ‘How can we be leaner?’ I know we have some excellent staff at the [administrative] level, but we’re very top heavy…So, can we look inward at some of our administrative salaries and say maybe we can cut there? What do we need to do from our infrastructure? What do we need to do with our buildings?
“We have a K-5 enrollment that has been decreasing steadily in the last few years…We need to be able to attract quality staff and then retain them because we bring staff out here, and then unfortunately they go other places. I’ve seen teachers that have been teachers for my children, and they leave because the pay isn’t competitive. It’s expensive to live out here.
“So how do we make it desirable? How do we make it affordable for people to want to live here and if they can’t live here, then how do we make it desirable for them to commute here and pay them a fair price to be able to build a really good talent pool for our students to be able to draw from?”
Jennifer Sargent:
“The quality of our education is why many of us chose to move into D158. It is important that we maintain this quality of education and grow our ingenuity to grow funding while we continue to eliminate waste.”
Susan Hochmuth:
“[The] district has been providing a quality education with the recent tax rate. Making sure the students are back in school following the current budget allows the students to have the quality education they deserve without raising the tax.”
Tara Masino:
“The Board has the responsibility to approve budgets sufficient to execute on the goals and strategies of the district and then measure itself against achievements while understanding the ability of the community to fiscally support those strategies.
“Property taxes have been the main source of funding at the local level for education and given our community is highly residential, we need to ensure fiscal responsibility in asking the community to bear additional burden.
“The Board should continue to identify methods to reduce both fixed and variable costs and partner with local government to create strategies that would bring business and tax revenue to the area.”
Laura Murray:
“The taxpayer will always be in my focus as fiscal decisions are being made.”
Katherine “Kate” Policheri:
“Our district is efficient with its funds. We spend less per student than most Chicagoland districts. We also have the lowest tax rate in McHenry County. With that being said, our students are receiving a great education! Our schools add value to the community. The better a community’s schools are, more people want to move to the community, which increases home value. No one wants to pay taxes, but they are crucial to fund our school district.”
The incumbents
Anthony “Tony” Quagliano:
“Trying to keep the levy within reason, again we’re a tax capped district. We’re not going to get more than the CPI (Consumer Price Index) increase that we would normally get. So, it’s a matter of, in moments of time, we’ve come up with creative ways. There are two components to every district’s tax levy.
“One is their operating rate and the other is their debt service. So, the debt service is in stone. The operating tax with the levy is the one that fluctuates based on CPI and new construction growth. We’ve always taken that percentage increase because that’s something that’s based on law that if you don’t take it, you never get it back. The last round of refinancing that we did, we really took advantage of the rates when COVID hit.
“The bond market really moved downward interest rate wise, and we jumped, and we actually hit it pretty much at the right time. We refinanced a good chunk of debt at a very low interest rate, and it’s allowed us to push out that debt. So, we are pushing along massive tax increases to our taxpayers and [we’ll] be lowering them. We [lopped] off some money where in the future, it won’t be next year but the following years, they’ll [see] a reduction in their tax burden to the community based on some of this refinancing.
Lesli Melendy:
“I have been a staunch protector of taxpayer resources and an advocate for fiscal responsibility. For me, each decision is weighed according to cost and benefit and in a manner that stresses efficiency.
“I also believe that schools should be primarily funded by the State of Illinois as mandated in the Constitution. As Springfield continues to heap unfunded mandates on schools, this burden is falling more and more onto the backs of taxpayers. As a school board we need to voice our opposition to this and advocate for change. I have never voted for a levy that includes a tax increase.”
Sean Cratty:
“Every year we must work on a budget from one year to the next. Mr. Altmayer, Huntley School District’s Chief Financial Officer and his team does a great job walking us through the school district’s budget and cutting costs where we all see fit. The levy process is never an easy conversation to have but since our district is roughly 67% funded by the state, unfortunately there will always likely be a levy topic of discussion to the local taxpayers.”
Paul Troy:
“In my 12 years of board service, boards have strived for high financial efficiency as a school district. I believe we have achieved that for many years, with a keen focus on improving year over year. You are likely asking, ‘Why?’ For starters, each board member takes an oath to, ‘…respect taxpayer interests by serving as a faithful protector of the school district’s assets.’ That means that I have an obligation to protect taxpayer dollars and spend them wisely. It’s good fiscal policy and the right thing to do!
“As a homeowner, I pay property taxes to the school district, as does our community and most of the other candidates. As a board member, I want those tax dollars to be spent in the classroom as much as possible – and have strived to do so. In our district, approximately 75% of spending is staff related.
“Over the years, boards have prudently approved spending money for non-staff areas (buildings, facilities, energy, technology, etc.) where innovations could be utilized to cut some of those costs: energy is one such area.”
Consolidated elections to elect four individuals to the D158 Board of Education, will take place on April 6. Early voting at the Huntley Park District will continue until Saturday, April 3 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
