The District 55 School Board placed two bond requests before voters in the May 15 election during its regular meeting on Monday night.
Voters will decide on a pair of bonds, $19 million and $4 million.
The first bond will include a number of projects from heating, ventilation, roofing, water lines, electrical systems, fire alarms, doors and hardware, asbestos sampling and removal, new floor tiles and wall boards, blacktop renovation, security alarms, emergency lighting, security alarms and improving bathrooms to Americans with Disabilities Act standards.
About $11.3 million of that bond will include the demolition and reconstruction of the oldest portion of Sweet Home High School, which accounts for the majority of maintenance issues in the School District. The portions proposed for rebuilding in the bond were built in the 1930s. The first bond also would include remodeling at Hawthorne Elementary.
Project estimates for the first bond proposal total $18,175,000.
The second ballot includes new tennis courts, a new track and a new $2.8 million pool facility. Should the second bond receive voter approval, $267,000 in repairs and maintenance would not be levied in the first bond.
Project estimates for the second bond proposal total $3,715,000.
The District does not plan on levying the full amount requested, Supt. Bill Hampton said. The District is requesting $19 million and $4 million on the advice of bond counsel to help cover the cost of issuing the bond. In addition, duplicate projects would not be levied in both bonds, reducing the total amount levied.
Those figures are “the maximum it would ever cost,” Supt. Hampton said. “But it’ll be lower.”
The proposed bonds would be paid back by property taxes over 30 years.
For the first bond, rates are estimated at $2.17 per $1,000 of valuation in the first year, decreasing to $1.89 in the fourth and subsequent years of the bond. The second bond would cost 46 cents per $1,000 the first year, decreasing to 40 cents in the fourth and subsequent years of the bond.
The combined bonds would cost an estimated $263 per year in the first of the bond for a $100,000 home, decreasing to $229 per year, or $19.08 per month, in the fourth and subsequent years of the bond. Those figures are based on the district levying the full amount of the bond proposals.
In other business, the board:
– Adopted a new policy regarding the presentation of films in classrooms.
– Accepted a letter of retirement from music teacher Ken Collins.
– Accepted the donation of a 1981 Ford Escort Wagon by Heidi Gassett to the High School Auto Shop.
– Approved a credit request to allow a student to meet a PE requirement through an alternative class.
– Renewed SHHS math teacher Darren Perry as a probationary teacher.
– Agreed to settle a grievance by the District’s classified association for $8,000. The settlement resolves issues related to LTD insurance in the 1994-2000 collective bargaining agreement between the two parties. The association will pay arbitrator fees.