The Garden City Telegram
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Teams forming to promote school bond issue
Published 8/6/2008 in News : Education
By EMILY BEHLMANN
ebehlmann@gctelegram.com
Six committees, three months of work.
That was the summary USD 457 bond issue supporter Craig Wheeler gave of his "call to action" Tuesday night during a meeting held to begin organizing a campaign leading up to November.
More than 100 district residents and staff attended the meeting at Garden City High School, where they learned about the bond issue proposal scheduled for the Nov. 4 ballot and discussed campaign plans. The campaign calls for fact-based and promotional efforts, with committees to focus on distributing information, registering voters, organizing a "vote yes" petition and fundraising.
Bond issue details won't be approved by the Board of Education until Monday, but preliminary architects' estimates put the cost of plans at about $97 million.
Based on the current state aid rate, 37 percent of the principal and interest would be paid for by the state, though that rate changes annually, said Dustin Avey, vice president of PiperJaffray investment firm, Kansas City, Kan.
If bonds are paid over 25 years -- which is the recommendation of financial consultant John Haas, though not yet approved by the board -- the issue is predicted to raise a $100,000-homeowner's taxes by $96.83 a year for 25 years.
The bond issue would fund the board's long-term facility plan, which includes construction of a new 2,000-student high school (capable of future expansion to 2,500 students), conversion of the current GCHS to a middle school, conversion of Abe Hubert Middle School to an elementary school and expansion of Garfield Elementary School so it could be used as an early childhood center. Under the plan, J.D. Adams Hall, on the GCHS campus, would house the New Outlook Academy alternative high school and the Therapeutic Education Program for special education students.
Board President Mike Utz said Tuesday that the plan was almost two years' in the making, after discussions of facility overcrowding and other concerns.
He said the board asked administrators to devise a proposal for achieving objectives that include reducing class size, keeping school-to-school transitions to a minimum, providing each teacher with a classroom, eliminating mobile classrooms, improving security, providing adequate space for current and future programs, assisting teacher recruiting and retention and creating a structure for "small learning communities" based on students' interests.
At Tuesday's meeting, architects discussed the overall plan and presented preliminary high school design schemes that were unveiled at a Board of Education meeting Monday night.
The high school, estimated to cost about $92.5 million, is expected to be built north of Mary Street between Campus Drive and the Bypass, just east of the Pheasant Valley neighborhood, said architect Stuart Nelson of the local Gibson, Mancini, Carmichael & Nelson. His firm and DLR Group, of Overland Park, were hired for the bond project.
According to plans presented by DLR Group's Jim French, a library media center and cafeteria would lie at the center of the school.
Four two-story wings would fan out to the west, each a "small learning community" with its own locker/commons area, administrative offices, science labs and other classrooms. According to a recent presentation from GCHS teachers, students would choose a community based on their interest in a career track, and their other academic courses would connect to that field.
A wing for vocational programs would jut to the north of the school, and on the east there would be spaces for athletics and performing arts, French said. Outdoors, the facility would include a track, tennis courts and a practice football field.
It's a design John Ford, a GCHS physical education teacher, said after the meeting that he liked. The small learning community concept is a good idea, and placing administrators in each wing can give them a more "hands-on" connection with students, he said.
Ford said he plans to discuss the bond issue with his students, along with parents and other citizens he knows.
USD 457 staff will be encouraged to educate people, especially parents, about the facts of the bond issue, and district funds can be used for strictly fact-based efforts, said John Fuller of DLR Group.
"Parents are the sole factor between bond issues that pass and bond issues that get beat," Fuller said.
In addition to the district-based educational efforts, promotional efforts would be led by citizens not employed by USD 457, he said. The citizens' committee would raise funds, develop "vote yes" materials and create a petition of "yes" voters, among other things.
Cost could be one hurdle for campaigners, Fuller said, although taxes aren't typically the determining factor for many bond issue voters.
"It will be a challenge to get people to vote 'yes,' particularly with today's economy," he said.
However, Shiela Dinkel, a parent and Jennie Wilson Elementary School paraprofessional who signed on to help, said there's a cost to everything, and it doesn't stop people from, for instance, filling their cars at the gas pump.
"I'd much rather sink money into our kids' schooling," she said.
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