As the second vote on Unit 5’s referendum draws closer, superintendent Kristen Weikle presented the district’s status to the neighborhood company neighborhood Thursday evening at Heartland Neighborhood College.

Held in cooperation with the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, the meeting also was an chance to ask queries of Weikle and chief economic officer Marty Hickman.

A profitable referendum on April four would enable the district to pull itself out of a $12 million deficit hole, reinstate lots of cuts planned for the 2023-24 college year, and sustain the offerings now in spot, say Unit five leaders.

But if voters reject the referendum a second time — as they did in November — Unit five warns of key cuts, such as shrinking employees by additional than 200 teachers, eliminating extracurriculars at schools, and cutting back on offerings such as P.E, music, art and additional, for starters.

Even though a couple of of the approximate 35 attendees at Thursday’s meeting spoke explicitly for or against the referendum, far additional have been interested in information of the district’s economic approach.

Also present have been Unit five college board incumbent candidate Amy Roser and former state Rep. Dan Brady, who each stressed that improved outreach could make matters like the referendum less complicated to make a decision in the future.

The thought that poor communication to the public sank the 1st referendum has been echoed by Unit five officials across a number of meetings. In this case, Weikle presented it as an explanation for why the referendum language has not changed for the second vote.

Tom Carey, formerly a college board member in Lengthy Island, proposed an alternate purpose.

“I believe I would be OK with it (the second referendum) if it came with some compromise, some amendment, to it. But rather, my cynical outlook on it is that it is taking benefit of the truth that fewer persons are going to vote, and mainly because that vote was comparatively close back in November,” referring to the 53.7% of voters who rejected the referendum then.

Weikle maintained the district is asking only for what it desires to stay away from an unpopular set of cuts that will take spot in the subsequent year if the referendum fails once more. In response to queries of debt, Weikle confirmed that if funding is not authorized, the district might be forced to borrow once more to spend mandated expenditures, as it did in 2018.

In contrast, with a passed referendum the district says it will quickly spend off outstanding debts and allocate additional revenue to education, along with a reduce in general house tax in the coming years.

Commerce Bank president J Phillips supports the referendum to stay away from forcing the district back into borrowing.

“The reality of the predicament is I think the district will want to borrow (if the referendum fails), which was confirmed with my query tonight,” he mentioned. “And with that, we’re going to see additional of exactly where we’ve been versus attempting to move forward. Why spend interest when we can in fact spend for our kids’ future?”

Early voting is underway for the April four election.

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