From Debbie Myers 

Juda

To the Editor:

I would like to discuss the upcoming Juda School 500k referendum. After sitting through two referendum presentations, I can’t help wondering with the decline in the resident student population, how long can the tax payers in this school district continue to “privately” fund this public school.

In 2018-2019 we had 225 resident student enrollments. This means that we had 225 school age children that lived in the school tax district. By the 2023-2024 we are down to 180 resident student enrollments. To be fair, in 2018-2019 there was an additional 25 outgoing open enrolled students that lived in the district but chose not to attend Juda School. This amount in 2023-2024 rose to 44 outgoing open enrolled students.  

According to a statement in the referendum, handed out on page 13, resident enrollment decline impacts district revenues received from property taxes and state aid.  Simply speaking, the more decline we see in resident enrollment the more decline we will see from allocated property taxes and state aid.

The referendum history of the school district of Juda as presented on page 6 of the same hand out, reflects what we have given the school over ten years. In 1998, we approved a 50K nonrecurring referendum, in 2000 we approved a 50K recurring referendum, in 2016 we approved a 150K recurring referendum and in 2018, when the resident enrollment started to decline, we approved a 350K recurring referendum. Now in 2024, the school district is asking for a 500K recurring referendum. For transparency, there is a remaining balance of over $5,000,000.00 owed on the construction loan used to remodeled the school. It has 12 years of payments left on it.

I ask you to look around your neighborhood and ask yourself how many of your neighbors no longer have school age children living in that residence. So where does that leave us regarding this upcoming school referendum? I encourage everyone to please think this over and vote NO. 

That brings me back to my original question. With the ongoing decline of our residential student population, how long can the tax payers of this school district be asked to “privately” fund this public school. With no significant student increase projected in the coming years, this referendum is like putting a bandage on the open wound. It only works for a short period of time before you will need another bandage.