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Hugoton bond issue to be $21 million
Published 8/19/2008 in News : Education
By EMILY BEHLMANNebehlmann@gctelegram.com
HUGOTON — Looking to replace a damaged wing on Hugoton Middle School, create an early childhood center and improve athletic and cafeteria facilities, the Hugoton USD 210 Board of Education will put a $21 million bond issue before voters.
The board voted 6-0 Monday night, with Loren Zabel absent, to place the bond issue on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.
The decision followed discussion since January from the Facilities Visioning Committee, made up of citizens.
At a previous board meeting, committee co-chairman Doug Martin said the group discovered water damage, mold, energy inefficiency and a flat, leaky roof in the east wing of Hugoton Middle School. The group also saw an early childhood center as a need, saying there’s not enough space where the center currently is housed — in Hugoton Elementary School — to hold the all-day kindergarten programs that could be mandated soon by the state. In addition, Martin said, the outdoor athletic facilities are in good shape, but the weight room, locker rooms and wrestling areas are in poor condition.
The costs
The bond issue would help cover what architects estimate to be a $22,857,000 set of projects recommended by the committee. The remaining $1,857,000 would be covered by capital outlay funds that board member Stephanie Hemann said the district has been saving up for about three years.
Based on what financial adviser Steve Shogren said are “conservative” 4.75-percent estimates of interest rates, the issue would increase taxes by 6.27 mills for 15 years. The board hired Shogren from George K. Baum and Co., based in Kansas City, Mo.
A mill is $1 per $1,000 in a property’s assessed valuation. The owner of a $100,000 home has an assessed valuation of $11,500, so the bond issue would cost that homeowner an additional $72.11 a year, or $6.01 a month.
Superintendent Mark Crawford said he hopes taxpayers think of the monthly cost as being comparable to a gallon of milk for a $75,000 homeowner or a Subway sandwich for a $100,000 homeowner.
The project could cost more in another community, Shogren said, but USD 210 has a strong tax base aided by oil and natural gas production. He said the planned Abengoa Bioenergy plant, which could further increase the district’s tax base, is not figured into his calculations.
The bond issue costs would be added for 15 years to the school district’s total mill levy — 29.42 mills for the 2008-09 fiscal year, as approved by the board Monday night. In 2007-08, the school district’s 28.97-mill levy was the seventh lowest in the state, Shogren said.
The project
Architects’ plans include three separate additions to Hugoton’s adjacent high school and middle school, according to Kenton Cox of the Wichita-based firm Shaefer, Johnson, Cox and Fry, hired to work with Hugoton architect Ashley Fiss on the school district projects.
n A new L-shaped wing to the middle school would replace the current Hugoton Middle School east wing that the committee said is in poor shape. It would include nine classrooms, two computer labs, two science labs, a special education area, a library, an art lab, restrooms and offices. It would cost about $7.7 million.
Cox said the design would be “sensitive to the architecture” of Hugoton High School when creating the new wing, although the middle school would be set back farther from the road to give the school its own identity.
n A cafeteria/commons area would join the middle school and high school, providing them with a common entrance. According to school staff who met with architects in the spring, the kitchen and cafeteria need to be larger, especially if the district follows through with what Crawford said is a planned policy to keep all students on campus during lunch. This school year, juniors and seniors are allowed to leave.
Cox said the new entrance would enhance security because electronic devices would enable office staff to control who entered the building.
Also included in the shared cafeteria/commons addition would be storage for drama and music programs. The entire addition would cost about $4.6 million.
n An athletics addition would contain a new wrestling room, weight room, locker rooms, physical education classroom, restrooms and storage areas, at a cost of about $3.6 million.
The district could receive financing for part of this area by turning the 5,000-square-foot wrestling room into a storm shelter, according to Cox. A Federal Emergency Management Agency program provides financial assistance to schools that erect certified storm shelters.
The separate $5.5 million early childhood center would include classrooms for pre-school, kinder-prep and kindergarten, Fiss said. It would be placed on Madison Street, just west of Hugoton Elementary School.
Fiss said she cut out some expected costs for the project by configuring shared restrooms between two classrooms, even though the young students are required to have access to restrooms directly from their classrooms. However, the district opted not to reduce the overall number of classrooms.
“We have a little room for growth,” she said. “You could have four kindergarten classrooms, but it wouldn’t be long before you need five.”
Additional project expenses include various parking lot changes, demolition costs and site testing, architects said.
Other funding sources
Several board members said they thought it was important for the district to contribute some of its own capital outlay funds — designated for facilities and equipment — to the project, with Keith Rome saying putting some money in would show a “good faith effort” on the board’s part.
“The best thing we could do is reduce it down as much as we could without putting a strain on the district,” board President Roger James said.
However, board members Don Beesley and Nancy Johnson questioned that philosophy, saying unexpected strain could still come. Beesley said he wouldn’t want to raise capital outlay in the near future if, say, project bids were higher than expected and there wasn’t enough money left over to fully furnish the facility.
But Crawford pointed out two other expected funding sources that could help: FEMA funds that would come with storm shelter construction and the state’s new facility weighting. Upon project completion, the state fund would for two years provide a state-specified amount per student based on the amount of time the student spends in new classrooms. According to the legislation that created the fund, its purpose is to help school districts with the costs associated with operating new facilities, such as furniture.
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