A warn for those thinking of supporting future referenda. This too will happen to you.

A note from one of our email subscribers who unsuccessfully tried to defeat a referendum in her community last spring.

FYI - here in Waterloo, Illinois, as you may recall, the tax referendum passed last spring. Already the education fund portion of the referendum has been added retroactively to this year's tax bill! People in the community are up in arms about it. They didn't think they'd get hammered with higher taxes until next year. The community didn't listen to us when we fought the referenda -- now all the sudden when it hits their wallet they're questioning the original sales pitch of the school board. The increase in taxes is much higher than they were told it would be. We tried to warn them . . .

Karen

The following letter to the editor appeared in the August 20th edition of the Northwest Herald.


Fat raises, fewer teachers
[published on Sun, Aug 20, 2006]
To the Editor:

Re: District 15 administration raises.

I recently read an article stating that the District 15 administrators gave themselves 4 percent increases in their salaries.

To me, this is truly unacceptable. I can't help but feel duped. I voted yes to the referendum so more teachers would be hired to alleviate the high student-to-teacher ratio; to bring back programs that were cut or would have been cut; and to keep the buildings and their property open so students would be able to benefit from after-school activities.

I did not vote yes to give the administrators raises.

The school board is not accurately reflecting the feeling of the community by doing this.

I now can see them hiding behind closed doors, wringing their hands and twisting their evil mustaches while congratulating each other on their recent coup.

I am personally happy that my kids will be eating peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches for dinner so the already-overpaid administrators of District 15 can further fatten their wallets.

I never will vote yes again. Sorry District 15, you messed up big time.


Marjie Lullo
McHenry