Following a recommendation by the committee advocating the passage of a proposed School District 55 bond, the School Board gave its nod to splitting the $21.6 million bond into two bonds.
The School Board found consensus to split the bond during a work session on Monday night. The bond will not be formally split until the board can take action in regular session.
The Our Schools, Our Community Committee shared with the School Board the results of a telephone poll conducted recently.
“The poll was a good thing,” Dr. Mike Alperin, who is heading the committee supporting the bond, said. “It shows a lot good things about the community. It clearly says kids are getting a good education. They’re very happy with that.”
The community also recognizes the needs of the School District’s buildings, Dr. Alperin said. The community recognizes that on the outside, the buildings appear to be okay, but inside they’re not doing so well. The poll showed consistent community support for the district. The community recognized the need for health and safety issues, such as the District’s heating and ventilation systems.
“The poll also showed there is a concern about the cost of the repairs and sensitive to how we might go out and fix these things,” Dr. Alperin said. The community, according to the poll, shows support for its extra-curricular activity facilities, such as the ball fields, the track and the pool, but the community also makes a distinction between academic structures and extra-curricular structures.
“They’re supportive for a lot of those things … but there is more support for other items,” Dr. Alperin said. “It shows us that the community does make some distinctions.”
Dr. Alperin told the School Board needs to be cognizant of that in framing the bond to the community.
The District could get voter support for a bond “if we were to present to his community an option that $15 million, $16 million, $17 million that included, basically, the primary stuff.”
An $18 million or $19 million bond is more challenging, Dr. Alperin said. Then “people say, ‘I’m not sure I’m prepared to go that distance. It’s a clear piece of information. How to respond to that is what we need to discuss.”
Extra-curricular structures make about $3.8 million of the bond, including a new pool, track, irrigation, bleachers, athletic fields and tennis courts. That leaves about $17.8 million in other projects more closely related to academics.
“The $18 million is a lot of money in this community,” Dr. Alperin said. “That’s a simple fact … but the poll shows people are community-minded. Quite frankly, I think the simple way to do this is to split the ballot. I think it’s the right move.… Present this community a choice. This addresses a concern directly.… Even though I may be a firm believer in paying for all of these things, the community is not so sure.… This is not an affluent community. This is a community that struggles from month to month, and I respect that.”
Splitting the ballot would address any trust issues, Dr. Alperin said. When it comes down to the vote, the community may make decisions on the bond measures for financial reasons and prioritizing.
“I don’t think it’s for us to make that choice, based on what’s in that poll,” Dr. Alperin said. “I think that would be presumptuous.”
If the proponents of the measure can present a compelling argument, Dr. Alperin said, the community “may say, ‘Well, yes, for an extra 30 cents a thousand.'”
Most of those polled were concerned primarily about cash flow and tended to favor a longer-term bond to keep rates down, Dr. Alperin said.
Board members were concerned that if the bond including the new pool, for example, failed, the District would end up throwing more money into a “Band-Aid” solution. The bond, without a new pool, had included $267,000 in repairs to the existing pool. Dr. Alperin warned the board not to drop that provision, in the event the second bond failed while the first one passed, until after the board and committee had a chance to think that through.
The board reached a consensus that the bonds be 30 years to bring the rate down for taxpayers, although the final payoff, with interest, will be more expensive than a shorter bond.
The first bond proposed will include the demolition and reconstruction of portions of the high school, a remodel at Hawthorne Elementary, heating and ventilation work throughout the District, hallway tiling, asbestos sampling, blacktop and restroom and Americans with Disabilities Act improvements.
Over a 30-year term on the bonds, rates the first year are estimated at a combined $2.40 per $1,000 of property valuation, falling to $2.14, with an interest rate of 5.89 percent. On a 25-year bond, the rate would stay about $2.41, with an interest rate of 5.8 percent. A 20-year issue, the rate would be about $2.76 throughout the life of the bond, with a 5.63 percent interest rate.
Supt. Bill Hampton will write ballot titles and return to the board in a work session at 7 p.m. on March 5 with further information about the cost of the bond.
The bond election date will be May 15. It will be subject to the supermajority rule, which requires more than 50 percent of voters to turn out for the election to be valid.