Community Support
The community of Arcola has a long history of providing incredible support to the school district and the children of our community. The community overwhelmingly supported a referendum in 2001 when the district built the new high school addition. The community again supported the school district several years later by helping to pass the 1% school facility sales tax in Douglas County. This facility tax is what allowed the district to complete a $2,700,000 renovation/addition project to the elementary school in 2020 as well as other countless facility improvements. In 2015, the community raised $750,000 for the school district to implement a 1:1 Digital Learning platform, which has provided our school district and our students with many advantages. The list of support from the community goes on and on!
Refinancing of Building Bonds
In 2015, the Arcola School Board refinanced the district building bonds from the high school addition in 2001. As part of that refinancing, the district was able to lower the interest rate and even reduce the repayment schedule on the bonds by three years. In total, the refinancing saved taxpayers around $435,000 in bond and interest tax payments. The district made the last payment for those bonds (around $150,000) in December of 2020.
Initial Working Cash Bonds Dedicated for Technology
In the fall of 2020, I wrote an article to the community indicating that the school district wanted to sell working cash bonds that would be paid back over 5 years by levying around $150,000 annually, just like the district has been doing with the building bonds the last several years. The funds generated by the working cash bonds were solely to be used by the school district to purchase the next round of technology upgrades for the school district staff and students. This strategy allowed our school district and our students to have updated technology for 5 more years and was a way to make sure the initial investment from the community was sustainable. The Board, with the support of the community, approved those working cash bonds that year and have used those funds to provide a comprehensive infrastructure for technology in the district as well as current and effective technology devices and tools for the students from the 2021-2022 through the 2025-2026 school year.
Stable Tax Rate
When the district refinanced the bonds in 2015 and then sold the working cash bonds in 2021, the school district promised the taxpayers that they would not see an increase in annual property tax rate due to these bonds. As a matter of fact, the district promised that the overall tax rate for the school district would remain the same or slightly decline over those years. The school district tax rate in 2015 was $4.5822. It has gone down every year since that time to its lowest rate in 2025 of $4.2974, a decrease of almost $.30.
I want to be clear that this does not mean that your propert taxes have not gone up. Your property taxes are determined by the value of your property (which is determined by an annual assessment and has nothing to do with the school district) and the tax rate (the school has significant control over this). If your property taxes increased in the last 10 years, it is because the value of your property increased, not because of a tax rate increase.
New Working Cash Bonds
Now that the 2020 working cash bonds are complete, the school district would like to sell new working cash bonds to provide for the next round of technology infrastructure, devices, and tools for staff and students. These funds will be used in the 2026-2027 school year through the 2030 – 2031 school year. The commitment from the district is that this will be done with the same intent that the tax rate for the school district will not increase during that time.
The Arcola School Board will be discussing the working cash bonds at the October 8 board meeting and voting on the resolution at the November 12 board meeting. All board meetings occur at 7:00 pm in the high school media center. Don’t hesitate to contact Tom Mulligan, Superintendent at 217-268-4963 or tmulligan@arcolaschools.com with questions.