Leadership Matters March 2014

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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