Summit Hill Board Approves $32.2 Million Tax Levy

The Summit Hill School District 161 Board of Education unanimously voted to approve the 2012 tax levy for approximately $32.2 million at a meeting on Dec. 12.

The 2012 levy is a $1.55 million increase over the levy in 2011, raising the district tax rate to just above 3.7 percent. This translates to a $69 property tax increase for the owner of a $200,000 house.

Prior to the vote, the board held a public hearing regarding the levy. One community member chose to speak.

“I would just like to urge all board members to approve the levy,” he said.

Board member George Perros, Secretary Denise Lenz and Vice President Joy Murphy were not present at Wednesday’s meeting.

After the vote, the board discussed several recent district surveys.

A survey of district staff revealed that many educators find the district’s homework policy to be burdensome, said Board Member Sean William Doyle. Doyle also said that when responding to the surveys, staff listed the Common Core State Standards, communication, trust and technology as areas of concern regarding the district.

Another survey indicated that, overall, district parents are satisfied.

Roughly 80 percent of the 400 parents who responded to the survey indicated approval of district policies when answering the majority of survey questions discussed. However, only 65 percent of parents said they were pleased with their child’s extracurricular activities. 

A group of 82 former Summit Hill students also recently completed a district survey.

The current Lincoln-Way juniors were evenly divided when asked whether their classes at Summit Hill had challenged them. 42 percent of students said that the district prepared them for high school, while 19 percent said it did not prepare them. 17 percent of students said they were personally affected by bullying while attending school in the district. 64 percent said they were not.

Board member Stacey Borgens said she would like to see the district survey Lincoln-Way students earlier in their high school careers, at the end of their freshman year.

While recapping a recent conference hosted by the Illinois Association of School Boards, the board discussed the possibility of becoming involved in political advocacy at the state level.

Superintendent Barb Rains, who sat in on a session about advocacy during the conference, said that it’s important for districts to unite if they want to inform legislators about the state of public schools in Illinois.

Doyle and Board Member Denise Wildeveld both addressed the significance of communicating with local state legislators.

“Now is the time,” said Wildeveld.

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