District eyes Nov. 5 bond vote for new elementary

   A plan to build a new preK-4 elementary school, connecting with Monticello Middle School, is two steps away from being placed on the ballot as a bond issue measure Nov. 5.

   Monticello Community School District Superintendent Brian Jaeger provided updates on the results from three recent meetings of the School Facilities Committee during the Monticello School Board’s work session April 10.

   The next day, Jaeger detailed the plan – and its financing – during an interview with the Express.

   The two steps to be taken next are to collect more than 250 signatures from members of the public to allow the measure to be put on the ballot, and then to bring a resolution to the board for a vote on April 22.

   If a bond issue passes in November – requiring 60 percent plus one vote – design plans will begin and construction will eventually follow on a $26.5 million facility, which would bring the entire school district to a central campus and result in the closure of Carpenter and Shannon elementary schools.

   According to the plan, the building would be financed as follows:

   • $15 million from general obligation bonds.

   • $10 million from revenue bonds, borrowed against the district’s SAVE account.

   • Interest revenue from the bonds.

   • $1 million to $2 million from money currently in the district’s SAVE account.

   Jaeger added that the tax impact of the plan, if it passes, would be an increase of $1.10 per $1,000 of taxable valuation.

   The district’s current debt from the construction of the new middle school in 2019 is scheduled to be paid off by 2038. In the event of a new elementary school, the debt would be restructured by PiperSandler Companies, so it would only extend out nine more years from the current debt, lasting until 2047.

   The School Facilities Committee met three times, on Feb. 28, March 20 and March 27. Each time, OPN Architects were on hand to provide figures and answer questions.

   The first meeting included tours of both the new middle school and the current elementary schools. One of the key topics, Jaeger said, involved building a gym in a new elementary school that would be similar to the one at the new middle school.

   At the March 20 meeting, OPN answered questions about what it might cost to remodel the current elementary buildings rather than to build new, and it was determined that the cost would be similar, without the amenities of a new structure.

   Votes of the committee were taken at the third meeting. The vote to send the plan of a central campus to a bond election, and the $1.10 tax increase that would go with it, passed 27-0.

   Another vote, on whether to put the issue on the ballot this year or next, resulted in a 22-4 total for placing it on the 2024 ballot.

   “If we waited a year, it would add about a million dollars (to the cost),” Jaeger said.

   One question that came up during the meetings involved whether people who simply skipped the issue on their ballots would count as “no” votes. Jaeger said Jones County Auditor Whitney Hein was contacted about this issue, and Hein said only the votes of people who actually voted on the bond issue would count.

   While all five school board members said they were in favor of the bond issue and the new elementary school, some expressed concern about whether such a bond issue could pass this year.

   The middle school bond issue in 2018 passed by a margin of 70.9 percent to 29.1 percent.

   Mark Rieken said he believes there will be more “no” votes than there were for the middle school bond issue, “just because of the economic environment we are in, which is greatly different from then.

   “It’s a definite need. It needs to be done. But it’s going to be a tough sale, no matter how good the message is, for some people.”

   Both Mandy Norton and Craig Stadtmueller said they are in favor of it, but that the retired population might not be.

   Jaeger said two things are squarely in the plan’s favor: that the $1.10 tax increase is significantly lower than the $2.75 increase that followed the vote on the new middle school, and that the new debt would only add nine years to the current one thanks to the restructuring plan.