No Junior High Athletics Next Year: Oswego School Dist. 308 Staff

OSWEGO, IL — On March 17, residents living within the bounds of Oswego School District 308 were asked via public referendum if they would accept a .3% property tax increase to benefit said district. By a margin of more than a thousand votes, those residents said 'no.' Their choice may have saved them a few hundred in tax dollars a year, but it exacted a price nonetheless.

According to district staff, there will not be any athletics programs for junior high students starting next school year.

This was something that district CFO Christi Tyler warned might happen in the weeks leading up to the referendum vote, though it seems her warning underplayed the severity of the cuts. She had previously told Patch that without the additional income a successful referendum vote could provide, junior high sports would transition from a district-wide competitive model to a intramural one.

"Probably the most immediate [effect of the referendum failing] would be the junior high sports for next year would become an intramural model as opposed to playing competitions against the other junior highs in our district," Tyler said in February.

Now though, it seems the plan is to scrap the junior high athletics program entirely.

"Junior High will not have athletics beginning next school year," district officials told Patch matter-of-factly via email, adding later, "Now that the referendum failed, all athletics will be eliminated... this is after school intramural sports for all five junior high schools."

Besides junior high athletic programs getting scrapped, district staff also said that previous cuts made to school services, meant to be pulled back in the case of a successful referendum, will now stay in place. This means that class sizes - large classes being a common concern of parents and teachers alike - will not be reduced, district-funded transportation for summer school students will not be reinstated, and fees for kindergarten and other student programs may not be reduced.

"There are no immediate cuts that will be made, but previously made cuts set to roll back with a successful referendum will stay (class size, gifted education in 3rd grade, summer school transportation)," district staff told Patch via email.

District officials declined to comment on what they felt, personally, regarding the failure of the referendum. State law forbade the district from advocating for or against the referendum, and apparently continues to limit what district officials can say on the issue publicly. District Superintendent Dr. John Sparlin did issue a statement on the referendum a few moments after it was projected to fail, but that statement simply thanked district voters for their input and restated the district's commitment to educating students.

District residents have no such legal binds and have not been quiet about the topic at all. Long comment threads on the topic have been running on Patch since the beginning of March, with dozens of responses. Anecdotally, these comment threads seem to indicate that younger district residents and residents with children were more likely to support the referendum, while older residents and those without children were more likely to oppose it. As is the case in many elections, the older voting bloc won out.

The response to the referendum also varied significantly across county lines. Oswego School District 308 encompasses areas of Will, Kendall and Kane counties, and while Kendall County residents rejected the referendum by a margin of more than 1,600 votes, Kane and Will County residents overwhelmingly supported it. They simply didn't have the numbers to overcome Kendall County, where the majority of district residents live.

Going forward, district officials told Patch they would be seeking new corporate and private grants to help fund what tax revenue now cannot. Other financial needs will be addressed as they come up.

"Immediate needs will need to be addressed with additional borrowing," district staff told Patch.