Early voting for the April 4 election has already begun at the Kane County Clerk’s office in Geneva and begins Monday, March 20 at Batavia City Hall. For voting hours at both locations, click here
A referendum on the April 4 ballot asks voters to approve the issuance of $140,000,000 in bonds for capital projects which may include building a new H.C. Storm School and a new Louise White School while demolishing the existing buildings. The referendum, if approved, would also authorize repair and alteration of other facilities. Approval of the new debt would allow for the bonds + interest to be paid off with higher property taxes.
Besides the Batavia School District referendum, there are races for local office and 2 referenda for the City of Batavia. To find your sample ballot, use the Voter Search at the Kane County Clerk’s website.
Batavia has a few contested races, for Park Board (vote for 2 out of 3 candidates), School Board (vote for 3 out of 7 candidates), and Waubonsee Community College Board (vote for 3 out of 5 candidates).
The League of Women Voters hosted several forums (if you are pressed for time, listening at 1.5x speed can be useful):
For Park Board candidates, view here
For School Board candidates, view here
For the $140 million referendum, view here
Batavians for Responsible Government delivered questionnaires to all the School Board candidates, with questions gathered from our mailing list and Nextdoor.com. The returned questionnaires can be found here (please check back periodically for updates as questionnaires are received). If you are curious where the School Board candidates stand on the school referendum, an indication, perhaps, is the first 4 candidates on the ballot (Gonzalez-Thomas, Sligar, Arulandu, and Dremel) all had “Vote Yes” signs in front of their houses when the questionnaires were delivered; the last 3 (Ekstrom, Rayman, and Fender) did not have any signs in their yards.
Finally, there are 2 referenda for the City of Batavia on the ballot. These are to eliminate the ELECTED Clerk and Treasurer offices, converting the Clerk into an appointed position, and the Treasurer’s duties assigned to the City’s Finance Director. Short, clear explanations for the proposed changes can be found at the City’s website page here. Please take the time to read it.