Dupage Policy Journal

A former school board member charges that a recent bond sale approved by the Downers Grove Grade School District 58 board to pay for an addition to Lester Elementary School was possibly unneeded and unnecessarily costly, and contains an unaccountable spending allotment.

Scott O’Connell also criticized the board for “circumventing a public discussion and direct referendum on the issue” by moving forward with the bond sale. The board approved the sale at a Feb. 12 meeting.

O’Connell’s comments, at a January public hearing held by the board, were posted on the Downers Grove Watch website, a local fiscal watchdog group.

Doug Purcell

In his testimony, O’Connell said that the seven-member board failed to investigate other options, including using existing reserves before voting to raise the money for the addition.

According to a statement released by the board, $2.24 million of the $2.8 million in general obligation bonds will add three classrooms, ADA-compliant bathrooms and a flexible resource space to the school’s east side. The bond sale proceeds will also fund electrical/mechanical work at Fairmount Elementary School, playground curbing and asphalt at Lester, and fire alarm updates at Kingsley Elementary School.

O’Connell said that circumventing voter approval on the bonds – 4,000 signatures would have been needed to get the question on the November ballot – cost the taxpayers a lot more in the long run.  

“A voter-approved referendum question would actually cost the property owners of this community … which includes each board member as well as the superintendent … $2,000,000 less than the cheapest option available to this board via a back-door bond sale,” O’Connell said.

Finally, O’Connell said that 20 percent of the $2.8 million raised is not matched to any portion of the project.

“If the true purpose for the Working Cash Fund bond sale is for projects (and not for “working cash purposes”), as twisted as that interpretation may be, then the amount this board can legally and honestly sell must reasonably conform to the amount that is needed,” he wrote in a February 12 post to the Downers Grove Watch website. “That amount is currently $2,255,000. If the board desires to sell the Series 2018 non-referendum bond for additional projects, hold another BINA hearing to comply with all of the procedural requirements for issuing debt. If you ignore this recommendation, you run the risk of knowingly, willingly and intentionally selling bonds for no stated purpose, which may be construed in Wheaton, Elgin or Springfield to be fraudulent.”

Neither Doug Purcell, Downers Grove school board president,  nor Megan Hewitt, community relations coordinator for the district, responded to requests for comment.