The ad-hoc representative committee is trying to come up with a referendum that’s fair to DeKalb residents and fair to students attending the DeKalb School District.

The committee says it intends to identify the potential needs of the school district and to make recommendations about how those needs can best be met, said John Lewis, a facilitator for the referendum project.

“Our elementary buildings can’t handle the number of students in school right now,” said Lewis, who also is the associate director at NIU’s Center for Governmental Studies. “According to growth projections, if we don’t do something now about the problems with overcrowding in the classroom, we’re going to be in trouble.”

Space is the only issue inspiring attempts for a successful referendum.

“What should we do? Do we build new buildings? Do we add additions to the buildings? Do we bus students around? The committee is trying to figure out, how do you meet the space need of the district?” Lewis said.

He added that unscientific surveys found the community didn’t understand what was being asked of it when the April referendum failed.

“All the community knew was that we wanted $55 million to do something,” Lewis said.

Carol Zar, another project facilitator, said with the previous referendum, residents only knew the middle and junior high school students were moving to the immediate high school, and that scared a lot of people.

“Most people didn’t see the big picture, they just saw independent pieces,” said Zar, who also is a senior research associate for NIU’s Center for Governmental Studies. “Everyone saw something that they didn’t like.”

She said right now, they have a very broad-based community.

“This committee has people who voted against the referendum for every single reason that you can think of, and it has people who voted in support of the referendum,” Zar said. “Our job is to try and get all of those people on the same page.

“The one thing that I think has come out very clearly is that, with maybe one or two exceptions of this 30-plus committee, the people on the committee do say there is a space crunch approaching us, and that something has to be done about it,” she said. “So that’s not the issue, the issue is what are we going to do and how much can the community support?”

Lewis said it appears the real need lies in the elementary and high schools, not the middle school. He said this raises a question: Do you build a new high school, do you use the high school as a middle school and then take the two middle schools and make them elementary schools (which was the proposal that got defeated), or do you follow a plan of building improvements to the existing elementary schools?

Zar said they haven’t decided on an amount of money for the latest proposal. She added one thing they have really been strong on is initially identifying what’s needed, finding out what it would cost to fulfill those needs and determining if the project is affordable.

“This committee’s job is to make a recommendation to the board on how to go forward … what should be included,” Zar said.

Lewis said they have to present the proposal to the DeKalb School Board by the middle of August so the board can approve the project to the county clerk. The clerk needs the proposal by Sept. 3 for the referendum to be on ballots in November.

Zar said historically, this community has supported its schools.

Lewis described two key issues: Putting the right question on the ballot and adequately informing the public about exactly what they’re voting on.

“If we can get the information out and make people aware of the issues, the response to the next referendum will be different,” Lewis said. “One of the criticisms last time around was that people just didn’t know enough about what was going on, so they rebelled against the referendum proposal.”

A Web site, found at www.niucgs.org under the link “DeKalb School Referendum,” has been designed to inform residents of the most recent updates.

“We’re trying to keep the public interested so that they can think about it and organize it in an systematic way,” Lewis said.

The last local referendum was passed six years ago, when a $12 million project was funded for the construction of Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School, 3225 Sangamon Road.