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County Commission hears bond issue details
Published 9/16/2008 in News : Education
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
sfarley@gctelegram.com
Garden City USD 457 Superintendent Rick Atha continued Monday spreading information through the community on the upcoming school bond issue by giving a presentation to Finney County commissioners.
Atha said the goal is to provide information to voters so they can make an informed decision. Atha presented the commission with the basic facts on the $97.5 million bond issue, which, if passed, would fund a new, 2,000-student high school that would be located north of Mary Street and east of Campus Drive; renovations at the current high school to turn it into a middle school; renovations at Abe Hubert Middle School to turn it into an elementary school; and renovations at Garfield Elementary School to make it a district-wide early childhood center.
As part of the bond issue campaign, the school district is disseminating factual, educational information about bond issue plans. Another campaign component is the six community sub-committees focused on promotional "Vote yes" efforts.
Atha said the district plans to do a mailing regarding information on the bond issue to county residents and send information home with students attending school in the district. Garden City commissioners recently approved allowing the district to distribute a fact sheet on the bond issue through the city's utility billing system. There also will be public forums and "coffees" throughout the community, Atha said, aimed at getting the information out there.
While county commissioners asked some questions of Atha Monday during the presentation, they didn't have much comment on the bond issue during the meeting. Afterwards, Commissioner Roman Halbur said Atha did a nice job of explaining and presenting the bond issue. The information was well organized, he said.
"He didn't sell me, though," Halbur said.
Halbur said that more than likely he won't vote for the bond issue. It isn't that he's against a new school designed to help with overcrowding issues in the district, but "they've got bad timing," he said.
Halbur said $97.5 million is a lot of money for a community this size, adding it might be a different picture if economic development projects such as the proposed plant expansion by Sunflower Electric Power Corp. was moving forward. It's not, though, at this point, Halbur said, and "we have nothing coming up" as far as any large, confirmed growth in the city.
"I would say it's going to be really tough," Halbur said of selling the bond issue to some members of the community.
But USD 457 Board of Education members are doing what they think is right, and they're going for it, Halbur said.
If the bond issue passes, the district's mill rate would increase by 9.56 mills, taking the mill levy from 36.14 to 45.7 mills on a 25-year bond. Commissioner Cliff Mayo said he was impressed the district's mill levy still would be lower than Dodge City and other communities if the bond issue passed. Without the bond issue increase, the district's levy is currently lower than Liberal, Dodge City, Great Bend and Hays.
"I have not totally made up my mind," Mayo said of whether he'll vote for or against the bond issue.
Mayo said he also was impressed by the proposed layout of the new high school. He said he's always felt the school district should go with two smaller schools, but that this layout could be an alternative he could buy into. The proposed layout provides for smaller learning communities for students.
"The big hang-up is the $97 million price tag...," Mayo said. "It's going to be a burden on property owners.
"I go hot and cold on the thing," he said.
Atha is scheduled to present bond issue information to city commissioners Sept. 25.
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