Letter to the Editor: Support for the Mahomet-Seymour School Board Referendum

*Editor’s Note: (Updated) All letters to the editor are fact-checked before publication. The demographic study that was taken up by the Mahomet-Seymour School District in 2021 shows enrollment projections until 2030. It states that by the Mahomet-Seymour School District will have 3,609 students enrolled by 2030. The demographic study only included residential development that was platted in 2019.

In the current election for which voters can currently cast votes, Mahomet-Seymour School District residents will have the opportunity to vote on raising taxes to fund various improvements within the district.  I urge voters to vote yes.  I hope you’ll stay with me to the end of this letter to understand all the reasons to vote yes.

But first, a bit of background about myself. I (Robert DeAtley) am a co-owner of Barber & DeAtley, Inc., General Contractors, a 3^rd generation General Contractor that does mid size commercial construction in Central Illinois.  I have served on the Village of Mahomet Plan & Zoning Commission since moving to Mahomet in 2013, and was recently elected Chairman.  I was a Project Manager some 20 years ago when my firm remodeled portions of the Jr. High facility.  However, the size of the projects being discussed as a part of Bulldog Blueprint are much larger than those which we typically complete.  I am the father of four boys who attend Mahomet-Seymour Schools.  I am unbashful in acknowledging I moved to Mahomet to help with a church plant, and because it was the best decision my wife and I could make for our kids, largely due to the schools here.  I participated in the Bulldog Blueprint process, as I have always been interested in both local government and my kids’ school district.  My opinion expressed herein represent only me, and specifically I do not speak for the Mahomet Plan & Zoning Commission. 

In general, my default philosophy is to vote against proposed tax increases.  I favor governments using the money they already collect to meet their needs.  But this referendum is different, and I’d like to tell you why I will be voting Yes.  

The need for additional space within the school district is painfully obvious to anyone who has been inside the District facilities while they are occupied, and certainly is not just limited to the Jr. High School.  For more than 100 years, the once every decade census has shown the population of the Village of Mahomet has been growing in 9 out of 10 of the last decades, and sometimes that growth has exceeded 50% every 10 years.  It is reasonable to think the population of the school district will certainly continue to grow.  In my opinion, a yes vote provides adequate space for learning and helps us to maintain strong schools, which is the reason many families located in the Mahomet-Seymour School District in the first place.

The $97,900,000.00 bond referendum will obligate the district to replacement the Jr. High School and the bus barn, and will fund additional improvements to the other District buildings. Assuming the architect’s order of magnitude cost estimates are correct, the bond initiative will fund the following work in Phase 1 of Bulldog Blueprint:

• Middletown Prairie Elementary (MPE): 10 additional classrooms, a car drop off lane expansion, and additional outdoor play space, adding 10.6% to the current building space.
• Lincoln Trail (LT): An additional playground, multipurpose arts, library, dining commons, classroom additions and remodeling, a doubling of the parking lot, and a significant increase the car drop off lane length, adding 32.8% to the current building space.
• Jr. High School: Build a new 140,000 square foot Jr. High School, expected to be a 2-story structure with the school itself 57.9 % larger than the existing Jr. High School, and including on site ample parking, a four-tenths of a mile long car drop off lane, an 8-lane track, and a softball and baseball field.
• High School: A fine arts addition with a 750 to 1,000 seat auditorium, functional sports field upgrades, and renovations of select classroom spaces to the High School, adding an estimated 17.0 % to the existing building space.
• Bus Barn: Replace the existing facility at Lincoln Trail, where buses do not fit inside the building, with a new facility between the existing Middletown Prairie and the proposed Jr. High School site.
• Current Jr. High Building: Provides $1,000,000.00 for demolition (if required).

Given state school facility requirements, it is difficult and very costly at best to retrofit the existing Jr. High facility for continued use and expansion and remain in compliance with the current school facility codes and state requirements.  Even if the building were able to be meaningfully updated to comply and if cost were no option, the current facility lacks the ability to expand in any meaningful way.  And, any expansion of the current facility would only temporarily meet a short-term need, still requiring additional expansions again, soon, with the continued enrollment growth, at a facility that is landlocked and is much smaller than the proposed new facility.

While some people have complained about tearing down of the Jr. High, and have suggested it is an error similar to the implied error of selling off Sangamon Elementary, I would remind voters that before the Board sold Sangamon, they attempted several times to sell the building at much higher prices and had to reduce the asking price multiple times, significantly.  The Sangamon facility was also located on a very small site that had already been expanded to its maximum potential, and at the time of the sale, it was in need of significant investment for repairs that the new owner has since completed.  The new Middletown Prairie Elementary site is approximately 5.33 times larger than the old Sangamon site, old Middletown site, and the adjacent District owned parking lot.  

I have read questions on social media asking why would the district spend money to tear down the existing Jr. High School when classroom space is so badly needed.  As the Mahomet-Daily pointed out in a fact check of another recent Letter to The Editor, the language of the referendum does not lock the district into tearing it down.  The Bulldog Blueprint chairpersons noted that they were trying to appropriate costs for demolition if that should prove necessary.  But repurposing the building as another school while maintaining the existing buildings would also require additional administration, building specific staff, and operational costs.  

Specific to the existing Jr. High School, the existing building is surrounded by residential uses and unlikely to be attractive for redevelopment for anything other than a residential use, so it is wise for the Bulldog Blueprint to make funds available for demolition, should that be necessary.

Also, although many residents and a few that no longer live in Mahomet have argued that the district lacks long term plans, the reality is that the planning that set in motion Bulldog Blueprint began more than a decade ago, and continues with recent School Board votes specifically with regards to long term facility needs.  The proposed Bulldog Blueprint plan and the related referendum is designed to handle the needs of our growing District until at least 2040, at which time the sales tax proceeds that are currently funding the debt payments from the Middletown Prairie construction will be paid off and available for future District facility needs.  

Some residents and a few that don’t live locally have argued that we already pay enough to Mahomet-Seymour School District.  However, the fact is we have the 4^th lowest tax rate of the 12 school districts in the county.  If the referendum is approved, it is projected we will have the 3^rd highest tax rate, of the 12 districts in Champaign County.

I will agree with the concern that this is a costly time for all families in the District.  However, with the cost of construction rising and the need so significant, a delay in the construction will only drive costs up for future work.

Others have asked why would the District replace the Jr. High School and not the High School.  The fact is, replacing a high school was studied as a part of the community initiative Bulldog Blueprint and projected to cost significantly higher than the Jr. High.  A new high school is not only significantly larger than a Jr. High School, but also necessitates more spaces for extracurricular and sports than a Jr. High.  It is therefore illogical to argue against the cost of the referendum and at the same time to argue for something that would significantly increase the referendum cost.

I have also read many people upset that the District is already having to expand Middletown Prairie Elementary School.  Yet Middletown Prairie was built using sales tax proceeds, without having to pass a bond referendum.  It was never designed to fill the District’s need for PreK-2^nd grade for decades, but was designed to be expanded efficiently.

Mr. Jessup, in a recent Letter to the Editor, noted that the new proposed site south of Middletown Prairie is landlocked.  The proposed site is bordered by streets and a railroad; however, the proposed site is more than 2.5 times larger than the existing Jr. High, track, and the previously torn down Middletown properties, combined.  In fact, the proposed site is nearly 60% greater than the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) and the Illinois Capital Development Board (ICDB) guidelines for Jr. High site selection, and by their requirements.  And using the IESA and ICDB guidelines for High School sites, the current site could meet the District’s needs through 2,373 students, which is about 2.40 times the size of the current high school enrollment.

Others have complained that building the Jr. High near Middletown Prairie will create traffic issues similar to what now exists on state street where the community has with ten grades of students attending schools within several blocks of each other on State Street.  But, moving the Jr. High to the southeast end of town makes sense.  The district owns the land.  The Village of Mahomet is expanding road connections to the south and east with the South Mahomet Road and Churchhill Rd. extensions ultimately to Prairieview Road.  The proposed Village budget released just last week also identifies a planned project to be studied, and likely needed, to add a right turn lane from northbound Churchhill Rd. to eastbound Oak Street (Rt. 150).  And the moving of the Jr. High will greatly reduce traffic at the other two schools that will remain on State Street, placing 7 grades of students at each location, along State St. and at Churchhill Road.  In fact, the proposed Jr. High project makes use of road improvements that the Village is paying for that otherwise would have been required by the developer of the land, which is the school district, with funds from the East Mahomet Tiff District, saving the school district the expense of hundreds of thousands of dollars.  

In closing, and for the many reasons outlined in this letter, I urge voters to Vote yes on the Mahomet School District referendum question this Spring.

Robert DeAtley