TAYLOR RIDGE, Ill (KWQC) – Rockridge School District officials want the community to vote yes on a bond referendum during the November election that will help them build a centralized elementary school on the same property as the junior high and high school. In addition, the district will also install air conditioning in their junior high and high school as well.
Officials for the Rockridge School District say their current remaining bond debt will be paid off in December and re-issuing the bonds at the same tax levy rate will generate the necessary revenue to pay the new debt. This will also allow the district to use up to $33 million for the improvements without raising the tax rate for community members according to the district.
Marcus Bush, Superintendent for the Rockridge School District says their three current elementary schools that are miles apart have caused transportation challenges over the years.
“That’s going to be beneficial to those parents, and also students, to be able to be on one location, and for, you know, the Rockridge district, to be able to share our resources across different buildings, because right now we share teachers across different buildings, but that’s a lot of windshield time instead of being in front of students,” said Bush
Rockridge School District has seen growth in its student body in recent years. According to the district website, there are currently 485 students enrolled in K-5, a 22% percent increase compared to four years ago.
In addition, according to the school district website, 85% of students live on the Eastern side of the district, leading to discrepancies for building & grade organization. Also the district says students who live closer to Taylor Ridge are currently enrolled in classes at Illinois City due to lack of space and to balance the number of students in each classroom.
Bush says that finally installing an air conditioning system in their junior high and high schools is long overdue.
“It turns us into a 21st century learning environment, you know. I don’t know of any other school districts around us that don’t have classrooms that are continuously air conditioned, you know? And that’s something we want to provide to our students, and we want to provide to our community that sends that trust us with their students in the building,” said Bush.
However, without the help from the community, Bush says its back to square one.
“We’re back to the drawing board, and that’ll that honestly would set us back a few years as far as be able to get air conditioned in the buildings and so on so forth. So we haven’t really dug into that piece of it yet, just because, you know, we we want to hear what the community has to say before we start digging into more pieces of it,” said Bush.
District officials say if the referendum is approved they anticipate opening the elementary school in fall of 2027. It will also take several years to install an air conditioning system.
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