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Waltham Elementary to try (again) to ease space crunch · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Waltham Elementary to try again to ease space crunch. Written
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  Speaker 1: by Tom Collins, This article is being read by an
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  Speaker 1: automated voice brought to you by Everlett. Waltham Elementary is overcrowded,
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  Speaker 1: nothing new about that, So the district proposes two options
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  Speaker 1: for Utica area voters. Option A, continue renting ten portable classrooms,
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  Speaker 1: Option B build a permanent annex. The price, however, would
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  Speaker 1: be the same for either option, a forty five cent
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  Speaker 1: tax increase. The board is eyeing a November third question,
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  Speaker 1: but is not voted on whether to put a referendum
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  Speaker 1: on the ballot. That was revealed Thursday at a meeting
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  Speaker 1: of the Utica Village Board. Representatives from the school district
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  Speaker 1: appeared at the village hall to build a case for
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  Speaker 1: voters to decide on November three whether to fund a
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  Speaker 1: way to alleviate the space crunch. Superintendent Christy Eager said
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  Speaker 1: there's been an influx of young families with children, swelling
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  Speaker 1: enrollment and straining the existing space crunch. We're continuing to
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  Speaker 1: see a steady climb, Eager said, I feel like about
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  Speaker 1: once a week we get a call from a family
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  Speaker 1: buying a home. So what would a forty five cent
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  Speaker 1: increase mean for taxpayers. Utica Mayor David Stewart recently paid
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  Speaker 1: about twenty one hundred dollars in taxes to Waltham. Based
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  Speaker 1: on a Shaw Local projection, he'd pay thirteen percent more
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  Speaker 1: a projected twenty three hundred and sixty six dollars if
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  Speaker 1: the board boosts the rate next year, though the school
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  Speaker 1: remains relatively new students began attending in twenty nineteen and
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  Speaker 1: was constructed without raising taxes. And influx of pre K
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  Speaker 1: and special need students required more full time staff and
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  Speaker 1: created a space crunch. In April twenty twenty five, Waltham
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  Speaker 1: asked Utica area voters for nearly ten million dollars to
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  Speaker 1: fund an annex. Voters would have accepted a thirty eight
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  Speaker 1: cent increase had they voted for it. Instead, the referendums
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  Speaker 1: sank by a two to one margin. The last plan
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  Speaker 1: was too big, said Kim Morello, a Waltham board member
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  Speaker 1: who appeared Thursday. Morello and teacher Katia Alvarado said the
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  Speaker 1: district needs to make a financial commitment because the space
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  Speaker 1: crunch isn't going away. Enrollment has climbed more than a
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  Speaker 1: third since twenty seventeen, and another sixty nine children will
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  Speaker 1: have been added by twenty twenty eight. Continuing to rent
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  Speaker 1: the ten temporary trailers or buying them at eight hundred
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars each is an option, they said. Alternatively, a
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  Speaker 1: permanent annex would meet the district's needs for a projected
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  Speaker 1: twenty years