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Oswego District 308 officials: 17 of the district’s schools are rated in poor condition · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Oswego District three hundred and eight officials, Seventeen of the
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  Speaker 1: district's schools are rated in poor condition. Written by Eric Shelkoff,
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  Speaker 1: This article is being read by an automated voice brought
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  Speaker 1: to you by Everlett. The buildings in Oswego School District
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  Speaker 1: three hundred and eight continue to age. The average age
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  Speaker 1: of our buildings across the whole district right now is
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  Speaker 1: twenty nine years old. Dist three hundred and eight Chief
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  Speaker 1: Communications Officer Teresa Komitas said. Kamatas spoke during a June
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  Speaker 1: second town hall meeting at Boulder Hill Elementary School about
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  Speaker 1: a proposal to put a three hundred and seventeen million
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  Speaker 1: dollars bond referendum on the November third general election ballot
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  Speaker 1: to address aging infrastructure needs throughout the district. The last
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  Speaker 1: time voters approved a District three hundred and eight bond
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  Speaker 1: referendum was in two thousand and six. The four hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty million dollars referendum funded school construction projects. Seventeen
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  Speaker 1: of the district schools are rated poor on a facility
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  Speaker 1: condition index. As part of the proposed referendum, seventy nine
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  Speaker 1: percent of the funds would go toward critical infrastructure, including
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  Speaker 1: improvements to HVAC systems and roof replacement, flooring, plumbing, electrical
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  Speaker 1: and building exterior improvements also are being proposed, as officials
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  Speaker 1: pointed out, the district quickly expanded from just six schools
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  Speaker 1: to twenty two schools to meet the rapid growth in
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  Speaker 1: Oswego in the late nineteen nineties and early two thousands.
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  Speaker 1: Seventeen new schools were built in just twelve years. The
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  Speaker 1: district's enrollment surged from about four thousand students in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety two to more than seventeen thousand students in twenty thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: The problem is that most of our buildings were built
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  Speaker 1: at the same time, Comitas said to those attending the
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  Speaker 1: town hall meeting. So eighty percent of our buildings were
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  Speaker 1: built within the time period of nineteen ninety five to
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  Speaker 1: twenty ten, which means that they're all aging at the
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  Speaker 1: same time. The school district serves portions of Kendall, will
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  Speaker 1: and Kane Counties. The referendum would fund facility improvements at
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  Speaker 1: all of the district schools. District officials said they have
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  Speaker 1: identified about three hundred seventeen million dollars in facility needs
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  Speaker 1: over the next ten years across all the district's schools.
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  Speaker 1: In the proposed referendum, twelve percent of the funds would
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  Speaker 1: go towards safety and security improvements, with another nine percent
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  Speaker 1: toward educational improvements. Deputy Superintendent Heather Kincaid talk about the
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  Speaker 1: district's need and desire to keep our students safe while
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  Speaker 1: they're in school. The safety and security upgrades would include
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  Speaker 1: improvements to secure entry vestibules, fire protection systems, intercoms, and
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  Speaker 1: exterior lighting and access controls. Educational improvements would include separation
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  Speaker 1: of g M and cafeteria spaces for two elementary schools
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  Speaker 1: currently using shared space, repurposed computer labs in the district's
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  Speaker 1: junior high schools, updated science labs at Oswego High School,
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  Speaker 1: improvements of the athletic fields at both Oswego and Oswego
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  Speaker 1: East High Schools. Because the district is retiring existing long
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  Speaker 1: term debt at the same time, homeowners would see a
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  Speaker 1: decrease in the debt service portion of their property taxes
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  Speaker 1: even if the referendum is approved, official said for a
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  Speaker 1: home with a fair market value of three hundred thousand dollars,
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  Speaker 1: residents would pay about one hundred dollars less per year
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  Speaker 1: starting in twenty twenty eight, and an additional fifty six
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  Speaker 1: dollars less beginning in twenty thirty six. The district said.
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  Speaker 1: More information about the proposed referendum is available at SD
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  Speaker 1: three zero eight dot org slash update three zero eight.
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  Speaker 1: The school board is set to decide in August whether
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  Speaker 1: to put the referendum question on the November third ballot