By WMBD-TV

STANFORD – Olympia Community Unit School District 16 has two questions on the ballot and they want to make sure voters in McLean, Tazewell and Woodford counties are informed about what those questions mean for their tax bill.

The district is looking to reallocate money into their education fund and into operations and maintenance fund. Both questions ask voters to approve a tax rate increase for each fund, but the bottom line is voting “yes” will not increase anyone’s taxes.

“Even if they vote to increase education and operations maintenance, the district is going bring four other rates down to make it a tax swap. We’re trying to educate all of our voters, so that way when they walk up to the ballot box, it’s going to say ‘increase’ and you can’t add any language that says these will be offset by the decrease of these other ones,” said Andy Walsh, Olympia’s assistant superintendent.

Why fund reallocation is needed

Walsh said those two funds are critical to the school district, as they cover teacher salaries, school programming and building maintenance. Funding hasn’t keep up with inflation, and the cost of maintenance and salaries have gone up.

Right now, Olympia’s education fund, which is also the school’s largest fund at $18 million, has a $1.5 million deficit. It’s currently covered by a loan that will be paid off by the end of the year. By reallocating money from four other funds, Walsh said the school district won’t have to take out any more loans to keep up finances.

“We need to reallocate money into funds that need it more. As we know, interest rates in the last few years have continued to go up, so we feel like this is a more appropriate allocation of the money, where it goes directly into our education fund as compared to it going into bond and interest,” he said.

If ballot questions pass

The maintenance rate has stayed the same since the school opened in 1972. If the operations and management fund increase passes, Walsh said they will be able to replace their aging pool, build an animal science learning facility, create a multi-purpose space and address needed maintenance and repairs of the elementary and middle school.

“We’re a very rural district, so to provide those opportunities for kids, we feel like would be an amazing opportunity,” he said.

Due to the school’s rural location, Olympia also has bills that other school districts don’t.

“We incur a lot of costs being out here in this campus, where we’re not attached to a municipality. So we have our own water tower, we pay for our own sewage. Those costs all factor into operations and maintenance,” Walsh said.

If the education fund increase passes, the school district can offer competitive salaries to teachers and support staff. They can also add an elementary art teacher, something parents have expressed a desire for.

Walsh added their education rate is one of the lowest in the area and hasn’t changed since 2007.

“We’ve done the best we can to be conservative with the money that comes in over years and we feel like we’ve taken a good approach and we’ve been good stewards with the money…We’re not asking them to raise tax rates, we’re just asking them to allow the district to reallocate the money to where we most need it,” he said.

If ballot questions don’t pass

If the operations and maintenance fund question does not pass, Walsh said maintenance projects for sewer lines and HVAC would be delayed. They would also be forced to close the pool and unable to build any new spaces.

As for the education fund question, if it does not pass, Walsh said it would lead to larger class sizes and program cuts. They also won’t be able to offer competitive salaries to teachers and risk losing talent to other better-paying districts.

Walsh said they could also be forced to take out another bond, further driving up costs.

“We don’t want to continue to take out more. If the education fund question does not pass, we’re going to have to take another three year, $5 million working cash bond to make sure the education fund doesn’t spend down its finances,” he said.

The general primary election is March 19.

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