SCHOOL BOND: Advocates: School bond good for future

Editor's note: This is the first in a three-part series about the 2010 rollover bond to run every Wednesday. The second will detail the projects that would be included in the first phase. The third story will outline the projects in the second and third phases.

School officials are asking voters to approve a new kind of bond in this year's election.

As in years past, this bond won't raise property taxes, and if it doesn't pass, taxes won't go down.

But unlike previous bond issues, this one won't specify a certain amount of money. Instead, it asks voters to approve a fixed tax rate over a 10-year period.

That, said superintendent Richard Stokes, will allow the district to better plan for future projects.

"For the long run, it establishes a predictable and dependable revenue stream for schools to do planning for buildings and programs," Stokes said. "It allows us to expand and grow into some of our educational programs, and buildings are a really important part of that."

School board trustees voted in March to pursue the rollover bond issue at 43 cents per $100 of a home's assessed value. The current rate is 47 cents. However, the 4-cent difference would be absorbed by city taxing entities, likely the city itself, which could add about $600,000 a year to the city's budget.

The decision to seek a bond came out of a master plan committee made up of parents, school employees and members of the community.

Mark Rotter, a local engineer, served on the committee to provide a perspective from the business community.

"What was important for all of us was to identify things that were needed, not necessarily wanted," he said. "We focused a lot on safety issues, energy efficiencies and code issues. The school district here doesn't have a very large budget from the standpoint of operations and maintenance."

The committee rated projects according to importance.

The first phase of the bond would address "high priority" needs and would cost $25 million. In this phase, every school in the district would receive improvements, ranging from heating and lighting upgrades, to increased handicap accesses and heightened security.

By upgrading outdated mechanical systems, Stokes said, the district will save money over the long run.

"We believe that by changing some of these things, we can save at our elementary schools alone $25,000 to $30,00 in energy costs," he said.

Those projects are expected to begin in 2011 and be completed in 2012. He anticipates the total savings from the projects in the first phase to save the district $375,000 a year.

The bulk of the work would be done at Empire Elementary School and Eagle Valley Middle School.

The plan would be to remove portable classrooms at each of the schools to save the $6 per square foot it costs to maintain them. Estimated operating costs of a brick-and-mortar building is $3 per square foot.

General redesigns are also part of the plan, finding a way to increase gymnasium and cafeteria size at Eagle Valley, both of which are too small to accommodate the school's population.

Changes would be made at Empire as well, moving the front office closer to the entrance to increase security.

"It will allow school officials to know who is in the building at all times," Stokes said.

A large focus of the second phase of the bond would be Pioneer High School as well as career and technical programs at Carson High.

The building where Pioneer, the district's alternative high school, is housed was built in the 1950s. Administrative and adult education buildings that surround it are portable units.

"We know there needs to be money expended at Pioneer High School," Rotter said. "We've seen a large growth rate in attendance there."

Having the rollover bond, he explained, will allow the district time to conduct a study of the best way to do that.

During this phase, the master plan committee would also look at ways to improve career and technical education at the high school. The plan isn't to build an addition, but to redistribute space to give these programs more room and improved conditions.

The second phase would begin in 2013 and be completed the following year and is expected to cost $10 million.

The final phase of the bond is a pay-as-you-go component, where technology will be upgraded with $500,000 every five years from 2011 to 2020.

Stokes said he hopes voters realize the importance of the bond and will support it, especially since it won't affect their tax rate.

"We're hoping people will vote yes so we can continue to introduce cost-saving measures and improve school programs for the future of our school district."