The Consolidated Election is supposedly a nonpartisan– meaning none of the candidates have and “R” or a “D” by their names on the ballot. The same is true of referendums or ballot initiatives.
An item on the ballot this spring was a tax referendum for Unit 5 that would bring the district $20 million annually in additional funding for the district’s Educational Fund.
That fund pays largely for salaries and benefits for school staff. Salaries and benefits are 87% of the Education Fund budget.
The Democrat Party of Illinois invested in local school board races and ballot issues. The state party supported the passage of referendum and the run of four Democrat-supported candidates running for the Unit 5 school board.
Local Democrats supported Mark Adams, Kelly Pyle, Amy Roser and Alex Williams.
McLean County Republicans openly opposed the referendum and supported four candidates as well. Republicans supported a slate featuring Mollie Emery, Dennis Frank, Amee Jada and Brad Wurth.
A group called Defend Our Schools, paid for by State Democrats, campaigned against Republicans saying, “Extremist conservatives are running for local school and library boards. Many of them support harmful measures including banning books, blocking full spectrum sex education, teaching revisionist history and ignoring public health.”
A group called Unit 5 Students First asked the community to vote no for the tax referendum and supported the four Republican candidates.
A group called Yes For Unit 5 supported the referendum and claimed they had the support of the; McLean County League of Women Voters, Responsible Cities PAC, Unit 5 Educational Foundation and Unit 5 Music Parents.
The Unit Five Education Association (UFEA) supported the referendum and the slate of Democrat candidates.
It’s Election Day! Get to your polling place to #VoteYesForUnit5 by 7pm—and support these school board candidates who will work with us to make our great public schools even better!
☑️YES
☑️Amy Roser
☑️Kelly Pyle
☑️Alex Williams
☑️Mark Adams#SupportOurStudents #SaveOurSchools pic.twitter.com/LDLd50Yrr9— UFEA • Unit Five Education Association (@UFEA) April 4, 2023
Democrats swept the school board races and the Unit 5 tax increase got the “Yes” vote this time around.
Unit 5 Superintendent Kristen Weikle was happy.
Weikle said, “I am so relieved and appreciative of the community that came out to support our students.”
“We had a lot of individuals engaged and a lot of informational sessions where people came and asked questions and we are appreciative of the questions asked by the community,” said Weikle . “Thank you. Thank you for sharing and for going out and voting.”
Barry Hitchins, Unit 5 School Board President said, “The Unit 5 Board of Education is pleased to see the community support our students by voting and making this referendum a success. The board would like to thank members of the Illinois Education Association, local trades and labor unions, the Yes for Unit 5 committee, Dr. Weikle and her administrative team, and everyone out there – parents, community members and organizations and most of all our students- who stepped up to make today’s successful vote happen.”
“It is now incumbent on the Board of Education and administration to keep our promise to the community and be good stewards of this enhanced revenue source,” Hitchins continued. ” The Board of Education will be having a special meeting on April 11, 2023 to take action to allow the district to continue to provide the services it currently provides to our students.”
School board incumbent Kelly Pyle, who was reelected to the board said, “I feel honored and grateful to be able to continue representing the community and families of Unit 5. I’m proud of the campaign that I ran and felt that my experience in Unit 5 and the clear message for achieving long term financial stability attributed to my win.”
McLean County Republican Party Chair Dennis Grundler believes the UFEA had a lot to do with the results.
Grundler said, “The union-backed people were definitely well funded and did a good job of getting out the vote and we didn’t. We tried and with less than 6% of Bloomington showing up and 25% of the county showing up, the last time I checked with most reports coming in, I guess if you don’t vote you are not going to win.”
Regarding the referendum Grundler said, “Here is the deal, they are selling it as ‘it’s not really a tax increase.’ The problem is when they go back to needing more building bonds it’s going to be a huge tax increase. If they want to build a new school on the south side for $50 million or $100 million it is going to be on top of this permanent tax increase.”
Illinois has the second highest property taxes in the nation.
The passage of the Unit 5 increase could add to the statistic and Illinois may become the first. Local assessors say we could be seeing double digit multipliers later this year on assessments due next year because of continued high prices paid for homes. Adding to that are home insurance premiums increasing at 20+% each year. Also, mortgage rates may reaccelerate later on adding to the future misery.
“So people don’t understand,” Grundler continued. “It’s like government. What they want to do is tell you they are reallocating but no they want to keep spending it and that’s the fact. So they are going to spend more and more as long as people are willing to do it.”
Grundler concluded, “The 25% of people that showed up? They won this time. They are going to get their money and their taxes are going to be permanently raised for the Gen-Ed fund and the union people that (backed them up) I am sure are going to (be) paid their dividends when they vote on their contracts.
Their contracts are up in June of 2023.
School board candidate Mollie Emery was defeated.
Emery said, “If nothing else there is relief that this part of the process is over. “I left it all out there” Emery managed to get out as she struggled to contain her emotions.
School board candidate Amee Jada said, “I can’t say I am not surprised because of the amount of people that didn’t vote which is disappointing. And then the ones that did believed the lies that they were told and everything. I guess when you have the entire backing of Governor Pritzker just throwing money at you then what are you going to do?”
“So it’s unfortunate,” Jada continued. “But I don’t regret doing it. I am glad I did it. It was definitely an eye opener to say the least. I mean I knew government politics is typically corrupt and a lot of things happen but man to see it first hand happening and happening to us was definitely different than just watching it from the outside.”
“It makes you really think like wow we really need to get united as a party and stand up against what’s happening because right now with these four board members on they will do whatever the teacher’s union wants and whatever they are told,” Jada added.
