Special Meeting of the Minooka 201 School Board

A special meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board has been scheduled for Wednesday, December 1, 2010. The special meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. Click here for the meeting agenda. As noted in the agenda, we will be discussing district provided health insurance as well as the 2010 audited financial statements. Please be sure to mark your calendars and plan to attend.

Next Minooka 201 Policy Committee Meeting

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 Policy Committee is Tuesday, November 30, 2010. The Policy Committee meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. Policy Committee meetings are open to the public, so everyone is welcome to attend. Please be sure to mark your calendars and plan to attend.

Link to Agenda for November 17, 2010 Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board will take place this Wednesday, November 17, 2010. Click here to be taken to the agendas for the Committee of the Whole Meeting and regular Board Meeting. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by the regular Board Meeting. Please take the time to attend.

Next Minooka 201 School Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board is November 17, 2010. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by the regular Board Meeting at 7 p.m. Please be sure to mark your calendars and plan to attend.

The Back Door Referendum

Typically when school districts such as Minooka CCSD 201 want to raise additional property tax revenues or sell additional bonds, they must put a rate increase referendum or a bond referendum on the ballot and ask the voters to approve the referendum by a majority vote. Illinois law, however, provides the school board with another option, which has come to be known as the "back door referendum." Essentially, the way it works is that the school board is allowed to vote to issue "working capital" bonds. Once the school board approves the working capital bonds, any resident of the district who wishes to protest the issuance of the bonds has 30 days to gather the signatures of 10 percent of the registered voters in the district. If they are able to do this within the 30 day time limit, then the school board must put the issuance of the bonds to the decision of the voters in a referendum at the next election. If no person protests the issuance of the bonds and gathers the appropriate number of signatures, then the school district is allowed to issue the bonds. This turns the usual bond issuance process on its head. Under the normal process, bonds are only allowed to be issued upon a majority vote in a referendum. Here, bonds are allowed to be issued unless the protest of 10 percent of the registered voters forces a referendum. Hence, the term "back door referendum." The bond issuance sneaks in through the back door unless 10 percent of the registered voters close the back door.

Because voters typically do not keep a watchful eye on their elected representatives and because the time frame to gather the required signatures is fairly short, "back door referendums" are usually successful. Since this process has been available to school boards, there are very few instances in which voters have forced a referendum. The difficult economy and the internet may change that, however. In the past year, some concerned citizens in Palatine School District 15 were able to force a referendum on the issuance of $27 million in "working capital" bonds. In the recent election on November 2, the voters in that district voted "NO" on the referendum by a vote of 67 percent to 33 percent. You can read about it here, here, here and here.

Veterans Day at Minooka 201

Veterans Day is November 11. Some of the Minooka CCSD 201 schools will be having Veterans Day activities on Tuesday, November 9, and the remainder of the schools will be having Veterans Day activities on November 11.

Next Minooka 201 Finance Committee Meeting

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 Finance Committee is Tuesday, November 9, 2010. The Finance Committee meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. Finance Committee meetings are open to the public, so everyone is welcome to attend. We will be discussing the state of the District's finances. We are still operating at a deficit, so we may be discussing additional budget cutting measures. Please be sure to mark your calendars and plan to attend.