15
City sales tax helped DuQuoin fund new high school
By Superintendent Dr. Gary Kelly
DuQuoin District 300
When our district and city decided to pursue the
use of a city sales tax in 2002, the present county
sales tax opportunity was several years in the
making. Our district had just completed a new K-8
school facility and was experiencing a number of
difficulties with our high school facility and no
construction funding readily available.
In looking to address the needs associated with
our high school facility, we submitted an application
to the state for an addition to the high school with the
district seeking to pursue various facility upgrades as
needed when our regular budget allowed. Upon
examination of the actual school building and our
original application, the Capital Development Board
recommended that our various renovations would not
qualify for any potential funding through the school
construction program. They recommended that we
submit an application for a new high school facility.
Since our community had just supported a 1997
referendum that approved an increase in property
taxes to support a new K-8 school, we felt we
needed to examine an alternative revenue source to
support our local
match to qualify
for state support
for a new high
school
facility.
At that time we
entered
into
discussions with
our
city
government for
the consideration
of a local sales
tax to support
this endeavor.
Our
City
Council
and
Mayor were very
supportive, but it was agreed that we would submit
the question to the voters of our city to solicit their
support for this type of tax for school construction.
After working through the legislative process and two
referendums, we secured the support of our
community to utilize the local sales tax as a non-
home rule municipality and at the same time the
voters of our district supported the question before
them to construct a new high school facility.
For the next seven years, no funding was
forthcoming through the school construction project
for the 24 school districts (which our district was a
part of) that remained on the FY 2002 school
construction list. Finally, in 2009 funding was
authorized for our project and our city was faithful to
enact the local sales tax to fund our local match.
During the 2012-2013 school year, after the
completion of several phases of our project, our
faculty and students were able to move into a
modern high school facility with tremendous
amenities to support the teaching/learning process.
During the early part of this school year, the entire
project became final with the completion of new
administrative and lobby
areas that tied all parts of the
project together.
Like
many
small
communities, the school
district is a hub of activity for
the community. Throughout
the year various school
activities are attended by
school stakeholders as they
support the youth of the
community. Activities such
as open houses, athletic
contests, plays, and student
award ceremonies are just a
few of the opportunities to
showcase to the local
community what their support means to our students.
More importantly though, the opportunity for
students to attend school daily without concern for
issues related to the physical structure of the facility,
the ability to take advantage of updated technology
opportunities, the opportunity to utilize a facility to its
fullest extent for learning activities, and the sense of
pride with a new facility has been well worth the time
it took for this to come to fruition. We are in gratitude
to our community for their forethought to take a step
of faith in providing a unique way to provide funding
for our new high school.
Dr. Gary Kelly has served as the
Superintendent of DuQuoin C.U.S.D.
300 since the middle of the 1996-97
school year. He received his Ph.D. in
Educational Administration from
Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale in 2006 with a dissertation
based on the use of a local sales tax
as an alternative revenue source for
school districts. Dr. Kelly is Past President, Past
Secretary, and a past Board of Director member of the
IASA. He serves as a Governing Board member of the
AASA, a position he has held since 2010. As well, he
serves the Egyptian Division as a representative on the
IASA Vision 20/20 Committee.
