Bond: Community Feedback Requested; Next Steps

Members of the School Board would like to hear from the community about the 2024 School Modernization and Construction Bond and potential next steps. The bond measure, which was on the November 5 ballot, received just over 50% approval but fell short of the required 60% supermajority needed to pass. 

The School Board has scheduled two listening sessions, and the district is launching a ThoughtExchange to hear from students, staff, families and community members. Information about each of these is included below. 

Board directors and staff members discussed the bond measure and next steps during a work study session and the regular session board meeting on November 14. 

“I personally feel a moral obligation to all of you,” Board President Dr. Harlan Gallinger said, speaking to the Student Representatives to the School Board, and figuratively to all students in the district.  “I feel a moral obligation to have a learning environment that will maximize your potential. Right now, our staff are doing great things as best they can, but it’s not optimal.” 

The remainder of the funding needed for the new high school was included in the bond proposal. The district currently has permits available to build the new high school, but cannot begin construction without having all the funds necessary to build it. The permits expire in April. 

“The need for a new high school is imperative, and that need is not going to go away,” Board Director A.J. Taylor said. “We have to do a better job messaging the need for the new high school, but on the flip side, we are going to have to communicate to the community what the ramifications are going to be if we cannot secure that funding. 

Director Sydne Mullings talked about the difference between the regional and national education attendance trends and what’s happening here in our district, where we continue to see an upward trend at the secondary level with new students enrolling at the high school level. 

The board directed staff to pause on projects totaling $44 million, which was repurposed via Resolution 1222 from the 2022 Capital Levy. The projects were for safety and security, and land acquisition. 

The board members also emphasized that they heard the voters’ message that the proposed tax rate change was too much. (The bond measure would have cost an estimated 29 cents per $1,000 assessed property value). Board members are interested in a potential bond package that would not raise the tax rate. 

The board asked staff to prepare information and feasibility of a potential next bond package that would include: 

• Safety and security projects. 
   
• The remaining needed funding for the New High School. 
   
• Funding for career preparation and innovation at the existing high schools. 

In addition, the board also asked staff members to assess the feasibility of the following possible actions to address overcrowding in case the district cannot secure funding to build the New High School: 

• Feasibility of re-establishing a ninth grade campus. 
   
• Feasibility of reconfiguring the grades across the system to create more capacity, moving ninth grade to our middle schools and using a junior high system; and moving sixth grade to elementary schools. Elementary schools would then include kindergarten through sixth grade; junior highs would include seventh through ninth grade; high schools would include 10th through 12th grade. 
   
• Feasibility of redrawing boundaries and adjusting feeder patterns to shift students (including information about the percentage that each high school is over capacity). 
   
• Feasibility of double-shifting at schools to help accommodate the enrollment growth at high schools. (In double-shifting, some students would attend earlier in the day, while other students would attend later in the day). 

“People are asking us what’s next,” Gallinger said. “This is the kickoff to that conversation. This is what happens in communities that don’t pass bonds. ... Building a fourth high school would have relieved (enrollment) pressure across our whole district.” Similarly, not building a fourth high school will mean that the whole system would need to adjust to help alleviate the enrollment pressure in a different way, he said. 

 

Community Feedback Requested 

The listening sessions for the board and staff to hear from the community about the bond measure will be: 

• 5:30-6:45 p.m. on December 9 at Pine Lake Middle School. 
   
• 7:30-8:45 p.m. on December 9 at Cougar Mountain Middle School.  

To participate in the ThoughtExchange, visit the website to share your thoughts, and then please rate the thoughts of others who share (rating thoughts helps us see the themes and trends among the thoughts). If you participate early in the ThoughtExchange, please revisit it later to rate thoughts that come in after you participate. The exchange will be open from November 18 through December 2. 

A ThoughtExchange is a process designed to gather information, feedback and ideas from a community. Participation is anonymous. The data is then compiled so that patterns and trends about the topic can be reviewed and considered. A translation feature is built into the ThoughtExchange tool.