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Frequently Asked Questions
Blaine
County School District passed a bond levy in 1993 to
build the Wood River Middle School and improve other structures
throughout the district. This bond was a twenty year bond to be
completely paid off in 2013. As interest rates were low five
years ago, the district refinanced the bonds so it could be paid
off at the same time the current plant facility levy matured in
2010. By having both of these mature at the same time, the
district could set itself up for another ten years of projected
building needs. The new Plant Facilities Levy is intended to
continue support of the district’s infrastructure needs through
2020.
The new elementary school the district has proposed will
alleviate some of the projected crowding issues over the next
several years. Excluding Carey, currently the district has only
one empty classroom at the elementary level.
During the Strategic Planning sessions, the district heard over
and over again how it needed to become more active in the
sustainability area. This levy will be first step in guiding
the district into that leadership role as well as continuing the
partnerships it has already developed.
A
plant facility levy is a financing mechanism that is
available to school districts to allow them to collect money
over a ten year time period. The collections are such that a
portion of the levy is set aside each year so the new buildings
can be built without borrowing any money, much like paying cash
for your own house. Bond levy money is collected all at once,
at the time the bonds are sold to the public; while the money
from a plant facilities levy is collected over ten years. Bond
levies are typically paid off over a twenty year time frame and
the District would incur much more interest costs to pay the
bondholders for their investments. The plant facility funding
method saves those millions of dollars in interest costs. For
example, if the Wood River High School and Woodside Elementary
were built under a bond levy instead of a plant facility levy,
the school district would have spent over ten million dollars
more on these projects just for the increased interest costs.
Under the current proposal, your property taxes will actually decrease slightly.
The district is collecting $4,000,000 per year on the current
plant facility levy of 2000, and $2,250,000 per year on the bond
levy of 1993. Combining these two amounts, the district is able
to collect up to $6,250,000 per year without increasing taxes.
The current proposal is to collect $5,980,000 per year for the
years 2010 through 2019. This levy is a fixed dollar amount and
will not be increased over the next ten years.
The stipulations of a school
plant facility levy state that money collected can
only be spent to (1) acquire, purchase or improve a school site;
(2) build a schoolhouse or other building; (3) demolish or
remove buildings; (4) add to, remodel or repair any existing
building; 5) furnish and equip any buildings including all
lighting, heating, ventilation and sanitation facilities and
appliances necessary to maintain and operate the buildings of
the district, and to purchase school buses. With these
limitations on the how the money can be spent, the taxpayers can
be assured these monies will only go for the specific purposes
outlined in the proposal. However, funding
these specific areas with a plant facilities levy, allows the
district to maximize funding for curriculum, programs, and
teachers with our general operating budget.
The BCSD enrollment is down by 67 students
from last year at this time (excluding preschool).
Historically, the Blaine County School District has seen
increases in enrollment in economic downturns. The thirty year
trend shows an average annual increase of 2.4% in student
population. The past two years have not reflected these
percentages, but the district feels the thirty year trend is
more reliable than the past two years. Within the communities
of Bellevue, Hailey and Ketchum, there is only one vacant
elementary classroom. Because of the flexibility of the Plant
Facility Levy, if enrollment continues to decline,
the school district will either push the new construction
projects back several more years, or not continue to collect the
entire property tax levy.
Bellevue Elementary
was built in 1970; Hailey Elementary was built in 1933 with
additions in 1972 and again in 1996; Carey Elementary was built
in 1965; Carey High School was built in 2004; Hemingway
Elementary was built in 1965; Woodside Elementary was built in
2006; Wood Rive Middle School was built in 1995; Wood River High
School was built in 2003; and the Community Campus was built in
1978. The buildings that were constructed in the 1960’s and
1970’s still have the original heating systems. These systems
need to be replaced.
Within the proposed Plant Facility Levy,
the Blaine County School District has many sustainability
measures including water fixture retrofits, solar snow melt
systems, irrigation systems to improve water consumption, a
pilot solar array system at WRMS, day lighting at Hemingway and
heat recovery systems for domestic hot water. Although these
sustainability measures are important, they only represent about
2.3% of the total levy.
We have applied for a federal grant under the Stimulus Package
that can be used at all of the schools if the solar array system
pilot program at Wood River Middle School is a success. If the
pilot program does not show success, the grant funds can be used
to offset the overall projects.
The Plant Facility Levy gives the Blaine County
School District the most flexibility of all funding mechanisms.
For example, the district is projecting a new elementary school
will need to be built by 2014. If for some reason the student
population becomes stagnant, the district does not have to build
the school. By doing this, the money can be given back to the
property tax payers of Blaine County. Under a bond issue, the
money is collected up front and must be used for construction
even if a projected need is not realized.
The architectural firm of Lombard,
Conrad out of Boise, has put a proposal together to convert the
Community Campus back into a middle school. The center core of
the Community Campus is inadequate for the lunch program that
would need to be provided on that campus. With all of the
improvements and remodeling costs, their estimate is $15,300,000
to make that building functional in comparison to the existing
middle school.
In addition to these remodeling costs, the district must
consider other factors. The proximity of the existing high
school to the proposed Community Campus Middle School presents
the problem of middle school and high school students sharing
the same campus.
Blaine County has always been one of the most progressive school districts in the state.
The economic downturn will come and go as others have in the
past. This opportunity gives the district flexibility to plan
ahead as it has done since 1993 when the Wood River Middle
School bond levy was passed. The district was able to build the
new Wood River High School, Carey School and Woodside Elementary
over the past ten years while saving millions of dollars in
interest costs. By planning ahead the district will not find
itself in the situation where a new school is needed and the
district does not have the funds or the plans available for the
need as it happens.
The district projects the need for an elementary school
somewhere around 2014; an eight classroom addition on the
existing middle school; a food storage/maintenance facility on
Airport Way; and a cafeteria addition on Bellevue Elementary.
We are planning a remodel
project on the auditorium at the Community Campus; site
improvements at Carey School (similar to Hailey and Bellevue
Elementary); and Fire Suppression Sprinkler Systems on the
buildings that do not have them.
The District is planning a complete video
surveillance system that can be accessed from any location by
law enforcement. It is also planning infrastructure
improvements in all of the buildings where immediate lockdown
procedures can happen from a central point, and all access
points into the buildings will be required through the main
office in the secondary schools.
The levy includes state of the art
Promethean Boards in many additional classrooms; the
implementation of a rotation cycle of five years on computer
systems; the building of a fiber optic network between every
building in the district; and the establishment of a line item
budget of $4,000,000 that would be used to take advantage of the
new technology that comes up in the years to come. The
technology portion of the plant facilities levy represents 17%
of the overall spending program.
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