Superintendent Ben Nowakowski said school facilities and supplies are becoming run down, and the district has no money with which to maintain and replace the necessities. To meet the financial need, the district has proposed increasing the tax rate from $1.18 per $100 of equalized assessed valuation to $1.93 per EAV. The increase will cost the owner of $250,000 home about $300 more a year, Nowakowski said.

Nowakowski said a lack of state funding has left the district in great need for more local tax dollars. Illinois ranks 48th in the nation in the level of state support for schools, according to State Board of Education figures.

Nowakowski said that burden weighs heavy on the district, with the students paying the price.

“Because of the financial instability in the state, board members will have to make tough choices about what programs we will continue to offer to students and which we will no longer be able to afford,” he said.

Cuts will likely come first to student extracurricular and sports programs, district officials have said.

Senator Martin Sandoval, D-12th District, of Chicago, said state funding for education has made great leaps in recent years, but that local taxpayers must help support the schools.

“Local communities share an equal burden in supporting their school systems,” Sandoval said. “The district has not raised its funding level (locally) in the last 10 years, and to me, I find it somewhat unconscionable that the (voters) have not increased their investments in their school district. ... If voters continue to want to see increased property values and to attract new homeowners, they must invest in education.”

Still, some residents say they are upset the district won’t accept the will of the voters, as communicated in elections of March and November 2006, when the referendum effort failed.

“This style of management — spending more money than they have — it just doesn’t work that way,” said Mary Karasek, a Berwyn resident who served two terms on the high school’s board about 30 years ago.

Karasek said she has voted down the increase in the past two elections, and has been given no information to sway her vote this time around.

“I’ve been against (the increase) because there has been no explanation of how the board is going to reduce the deficit, which is astronomical,” Karasek said. “People don’t have confidence in this board.”

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