The Unit 5 tax referendum drew several Community seniors to the polls on April 4, the second time the issue was on the ballot.
More than 53% of voters rejected the referendum in November’s midterm elections when the majority of the Class of 2023 was ineligible to vote.
In April, the referendum passed with 59% of the vote, a nearly 13-point swing in favor of the issue.
Community’s newly eligible voters were among the 25% of registered voters who participated in Bloomington Normal’s Consolidated elections.
Voter turnout more than doubled from 2019, the area’s last non-mayoral April election.
The above-average turnout has been attributed to voters’, like members of Community’s senior class, vested interest in the election results.
During her Unit 5 education, Karthika Nair said the district offered her “so many amazing opportunities” like athletics and after-school clubs and organizations.
Providing her younger brothers with those same opportunities motivated Nair to vote in favor of the referendum.
“That was really important to me that they get those opportunities,” Nair said.
Like Nair, Kenzie Winter said, her younger sibling was a deciding factor in her vote for the referendum.
“I wanted to make sure she still had all the same opportunities that I did,” Winter said.
“My family was talking about moving to get my sister to a better school,” Winter said.
The referendum failing would have impacted the Winter’s whole family, she said, as her mom works for the district as Chiddix and Evans Junior High’s family coordinator.
“She works with students and their families to best support them in school and allow them to succeed,” Winter said.
“Her job would have been in danger,” Winter said.
As a result, so would the junior high students Winter’s mother meets with, “help[ing] them through mental health, conflict, struggles at school or at home, and anything else they may need support with,” Winter said.
Preserving opportunities like “clubs and activities” influenced Brooke Macke’s “yes” vote.
Extra-curriculars, Macke said, are a “super important part of school” that can help determine students’ path after high school.
The possible elimination of curricular classes like music and foreign language inspired Joseph Westpfahl to cast his ballot.
Westpfahl is enrolled in Chamber Choir and Spanish, two classes potentially on the chopping block.
Westpfahl’s vote, he said, helped to allow Unit 5 students “the ability to participate in [classes] like that in school.”
At a special board meeting on April 11, the McLean County Unit 5 School Board reversed most of the cuts set to take effect next school year.
