NO, NO, NO!!! Absolutely NO! My kids attend Batavia schools, but that damn high school's classroom, lab, field house and auditorium additions were beyond extravagant and exorbitantly expensive. Most suburban cities could have constructed a complete high school with the funds Batavia spent on just the high school additions. Our property taxes were around $12K when we relocated to Batavia in 2003. Our property value has precipitously declined the last five years, but our property taxes are now nearing $20K! The city of Batavia and ESPECIALLY the Batavia schools (District 101) need to come to terms with fiscal reality. Now is certainly NO time for any major capital expenditures, especially when MANY Batavia home owners are being forced into financial distress, or worse, losing their homes due to the unbelievably astronomical property taxes. One of my colleagues lives in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. He and his family live in a $500K single-family house in a sought-after subdivision of an affluent suburb with highly-rated schools, yet their property taxes were just $5600 last year. JUST $5600!!!

Jimmy, you fail to mention that Illinois income tax is 5% and North Carolina's is 7.75%. They get their money one way or another.

This is a joke... Right?

This is how you turn thriving cities into ghost towns. It all comes down to one word: BANKRUPTCY. Batavia is going to spend itself dry, whether it's the high school or a new brick road for the bars on River St. I went to BHS, and I saw no need for everything they did. None at all, with the exception of a few more classrooms (emphasis on a few). Go ahead, keep building. The only reason you're doing it is to feed the super ego of the parental social butterflies. And interestingly enough, I've had this conversation with some of my former classmates, who surprised me in having very, VERY similar opinions! More middle class home owners will be forced into foreclosure and have to leave. So it looks like whatever rich people there are around here will have to foot the bill, which definitely won't last for long. So the point is, I have a very strong feeling that one day I will come back to Batavia to find most of its citizens living in the minority. But hey, at least we'll learn from it. Until then, I think it's time to hike it out of here.

I absolutely agree ... NO! to any further building improvements. They needed the additional classrooms, but the theater and field house were beyond extragavent in the middle of the one of the worst economic periods since the great depression. My taxes have almost doubled since I built my house in 2001. This is completely fiscally irresponsible ... they increased the taxing percentage on property taxes for the district so they could pay their debt and now they want to spend an additional $13 mln for turf?!

Oh boy! Let's NOT invest in science, math and technology so we can continue to ship those kobs overseas. Let's invest in athletic programs, theater, and the performance arts. This way, BHS Graduates will at least know how to play catch and be well-qualified to say "Hi, I'm (name), how would you like your coffee?"
This is totally irresponsible. The school district will tax residents to the point where Batavia will be a ghost town.

disgusting and obscene! my tax dollars at work...yeah, right. house values are in the toilet and my taxes keep going up. the majority of my taxes pay for schools and I don't have kids, why should I subsidize this? high school kids need artificial turf?!? they aren't pro athletes! ridiculous!

While the questions raised here are worth discussing, it is also worth discussing that a field turf field costs LESS over the long run plus multiple groups can use it despite the weather. Schools that have field turf have been able to increase their utilization no matter what mother nature gives us during the busy season.