Kaneland school district's referendum committee faces several obstacles in campaigning for an education fund increase in November.

One, a new statewide ethics law has left the committee and district confused about how much the school district and its employees can be involved in the campaign.

Two, the November ballot is full of different referendums. Both the Town and Country and Sugar Grove libraries are asking for more money, as is the Sugar Grove Fire Protection District.

And three, nothing looks wrong at the school district - class sizes are still relatively low and a new elementary school and a high school addition were just built.

"It's kind of an up-hill battle because people don't seem to think there's a problem until they feel it," said Teresa Witt, a referendum committee member. "But we can't maintain the status quo without passing a referendum. Eventually, programs will have to be cut."

Kaneland Unit District 302 is asking for an increase of 37 cents per $100 of assessed value, according to the district's latest calculations. That's about $228 more in taxes per year on a $200,000 house.

The increase would help fund what's needed to deal with enrollment growth of about 300 students a year, school officials said. Without an increase or eliminating programs, the district would be almost $6 million in debt by the 2007-08 year, they estimate.

A portion of last year's sweeping ethics legislation prohibits the use of school resources to support a referendum campaign. Kaneland supporters have decided to err on the side of caution in interpreting those rules.

Committee members don't have their meetings at the school and don't think they can hold a large forum to educate voters because without the schools, they don't have a place that could hold a crowd. They don't send materials home in students' backpacks.

And school officials don't think they can necessarily help. The law prohibits school employees from supporting a referendum while they're working. But school administrators say they always consider themselves on the clock, so their hands could be tied.

"I think I speak for the school board when I say we consider ourselves board members 24/7, especially from an ethical standpoint," said board president Lisa Wiet.

Before a 2002 building referendum, Wiet helped produce a video to support the referendum. This time around, she doesn't know if she could do that.

Because of such constraints, Witt said the committee wants to focus on fliers, newspaper advertising and letters to the editor, yard signs and word-of-mouth.

The panel also focused on registering school parents in the district to vote by learning which parents weren't registered and sending them the forms before the state deadline.

The committee received about 100 forms to turn in, and more parents turned them in directly, Witt said.

They also created a Web site, www.kanelandusa.com, with information about the referendum.

Although those in the Kaneland community might not have seen referendum materials yet, the group wants to do an "all-out blitz" in the weeks leading up to the election, Witt said.

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