By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

There as likely a sigh of relief, and finally an eye for the future, as Wyoming Public Schools district voters Tuesday approved what is essentially a $79.5 million school improvement plan by allowing the district to continue to collect the same level of millage into the future.

With 23 of 23 precincts reporting in the Nov. 7 general election, the vote was 2,377 yes and 1,075 no. The approved millage request comes after the district’s voters rejected millage increases in the spring and fall of 2013, each of which would have raised about $50 million. The last significant bond passage was in 1997, for about $41 million.

On Wednesday, district Superintendent Dr. Thomas Reeder told WKTV why this millage request was different from previous ones, and what the district’s move to modernize itself will mean to students.

“This request was significant in two ways,” Reeder said. “First, it involved no increase in the current tax levy, but extends it.

“What this will mean for students in elementary school is they will be able to see the final renovations of the high school as they complete their schooling, or before,” he added. But “current students in elementary will not see any changes at (their) elementary (schools) as this will be a 7-8 year work in progress to significantly redo all our buildings and grounds.”

The millage would pay for bonds which would be used to upgrade every district buildings, and improve safety, security and transportation systems. But the majority of the funds, about $40 million, will be spent on the high school’s two-phase makeover, including a 30-classroom addition to allow the movement of freshmen students back to the high school, as well as other building and athletic facility upgrades.

For more details on what the Wyoming Public Schools district plans to do with the approved millage, see a previous WKTV story here.

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

Wyoming Public Schools superintendent Thomas Reeder is to-the-point when asked to explain the need for his district to modernize its buildings and other infrastructure, which is what the district’s $79.5 million millage extension request on the Nov. 7 ballot is all about.

“At some point, whether it is your home or your car, the number of things going wrong, breaking down, becomes overwhelming … we need a huge overhaul of our buildings,” Reeder said in an interview on WKTV Journal: In Focus. “We have about 18 years of renovations that we want to be able to do … what I mean by that is we have to be able to set our schools up for the next couple of decades.”

He is just as direct when it comes to why district taxpayers should trust that his school system will spend the money wisely — pointing out that his district is the only one of out 20 Kent County school districts to have has balanced its budget in the 5-year period from 2012-2016, and that it has the 14 lowest total millage rate out of those 20 county school districts.

“We have tried to prudent with the dollars (the voters) have given us with our bond requests,” he said. “And we have made necessary cuts, whether it be in administration, maintenance or other things in order to ensure we stay ahead of the curve” when it comes to a balanced budget.

Wyoming Public Schools, which has about 4,300 students, is asking for voter approval to continue the current millage rate for 18 more years — an action which would neither increase or decrease what property tax payers would pay.

The current debt rate of 5.65 is projected to be levied through 2025. It will taper off after that as these bonds are paid off through 2043. If the millage request is passed, the first series bonds (projected for 2018) would be repaid over 21 years, by 2039. A second series of bonds (projected for 2022) would be retired by 2043 at the latest.

The district’s current total property tax base millage is 6.145 mills: 5.65 mills in debt and .495 mill for a sinking fund. Its last big bond measure was passed in 1994. District currently has three bond measures being paid off, and this new millage request would allow for the continued funding of new bonds as each of the three existing bond measures are paid off. The sinking fund is separate, for $400k per year and is in the 2nd year of a 10-year sinking fund request passed in 2015.

By state law, school bonds can only be utilized to fund capital improvement projects, new construction, technology and transportation. The proceeds cannot be used for routine repair or maintenance costs; teacher, administrator or employee salaries; or other operating expenses.

The expenditure of any bond proceeds must be audited annually during the construction period by an external CPA firm. Those audits are transmitted annually to the Department of Treasury.

The breakdown of how the $79.5 million would be spent is:

High school: $40 million in two segments (two phases: 2018 and 2022)

Junior high: $11.5 million

Intermediate school: $4.5 million

Elementary schools: Gladiola = $6 million; West = $5 million; Oriole = $4.5 million; Parkview = $3.5 million; Rogers Lane = $900k

Huntington Woods Early Childhood Center: $1.5 million

Administration Building: $950k

Regional Center and Adult Education: $830k

Bus Garage: $400k

Most of the building and site improvements to be done would be items such as roof replacements, mechanical system upgrades, classroom and building renovations. There would also be safety and security improvements — including playground safety improvements.

“It has been a couple of decades since we passed our last millage,” Reeder said. “So since 1994 all of the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), roofs, etcetera, have not been done. Parking lots. The parking lots have not had any major work since that time.

“Those all need to be upgraded, to be redone. There is a significant cost in doing that, well beyond an operating millage. In addition, our buildings were built in a very different era. All of our buildings are approximately 50 years or more old.”

The largest single expenditure would be to restructure the high school to again house 9-12 grades. The design would allow for a freshman wing to keep these students together during what the district calls “their important transition year into high school.”

Upgrades to the high school would occur over two phases, starting in 2018. Among the work to be done is construction of two-story, 30 classroom addition, as well as athletic upgrades, and cafeteria and kitchen upgrades for 9th grade student addition.

“The high school gets a total remodel,” Reeder said. “All the other buildings and sites get a significant remodel. But we are not adding on and moving things around as we would at the high school.”

The move to separate the 9th grade students into the middle school was originally done as a cost-saving measure. But “our parents have requested, our staff have overwhelming said: ‘We fully understand why you did that, but at some point we’d love to have the 9th grade back in the high school, with the flow, the way the curriculum works, in this day’,” Reeder said.