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Resident urges CUSD 300 to scale back master facility plan, warns of tax impact
Summary
At a Board Operations Committee meeting, resident Mike Tennis urged the district to reduce its proposed master facility spending plan and questioned use of non-referendum life-safety bonds, citing potential homeowner tax impacts and enrollment trends.
Mike Tennis, a resident of Sleepy Hollow, told the CUSD 300 Board Operations Committee that the district’s proposed six-year master facility plan should be scaled back to reduce the tax burden on homeowners.
Tennis said the plan groups projects into four priorities and called the first priority — $68,000,000 for life-safety projects funded by nonrefundable bonds — "life safety items" that should be addressed sooner than a four- to six-year timeline. "If life safety items are truly for safety, they should not be planned for 4 to 6 years, but 3," Tennis said. He estimated the six-year bond schedule would cost a homeowner of a $300,000 property about $89 per year for 20 years.
Tennis recommended shifting $34,000,000 out of non-referendum projects into lower priorities to reduce the tax impact to about $45 per year. He also questioned a second priority of $71,000,000 for ADA, fire-safety and structural compliance, urging that safety and compliance work proceed promptly.
On capacity, Tennis noted the district’s enrollment data, stating that enrollment fell from 136,000 in 2020 to 120,000 in 2024 and saying buildings are only about 70% utilized. He recommended addressing capacity through boundary realignment rather than a $272,000,000 construction program.
Tennis also criticized a financing option presented by Raymond James — described in the meeting as an Option 3 involving a $250,000,000 referendum with refunding and no tax increase — and opposed a $43,800,000 refunding he traced back to a 2019 referendum. "Stop charging taxpayers compounded interest and debt dating back 2 decades," Tennis said.
The Committee did not vote on any action during the public comment segment; the remarks were recorded during the public participation portion of the agenda and will be part of the Committee’s record for future consideration.
