McMurtrey insist Phase II cost will only increase
Mountain Home School District Superintendent Tim McMurtrey knows $37 million is a lot to ask voters on April 29, but his reason for doing so is simple.
"This is what we need. We're not building it because it's pretty and would be nice to have," McMurtrey said of the school board's plan to complete Phase II of turning the junior high in to a high school.
"The kids deserve a good school, that is what this is, it's a good building that is going to last," he said.
The school district's job of maintaining its buildings is evident at Hacker Middle School, where classes are still held in the annex built in 1920. East Elementary was built in 1951 and the high school in 1954.
To finance the completion of the building, the school district is seeking the approval of a $37 million bond over 20 years. The new debt would be added to the existing debt from the 1995 bond that built the junior high.
The bond will have a levy rate of .00175 or $1.75 per $1,000 of taxable assessed value of property in the school district.
If passed, the levy rate will be added to the levy rate of the existing bond until 2015 when the first bond is paid off. The levy rate will remain the same in 2015 and the full amount collected will go towards the new bond.
Taxes on property with a taxable assessed net value of $100,000, would increase an additional $14.59 a month.
Net value is determined once the homeowner's exemption has been applied to the original assessment.
The homeowner's exemption is given to owner-occupied houses and for tax year 2007 was equal to less 50 percent of the value of the property, including up to one acre of land, or the maximum of $89,325.
This means if the owner of the property occupies a $189,325 house on one acre, the owner would pay the same taxes for property valued at $100,000.
The assessed value within the school district was $1,005,064,817 for 2007. With the 0.00175 levy rate, the school district would have raised approximately $1.75 million in 2007, had the bond already been in place.
Because the assessed value within the school district increases yearly, the levy rate decreases slightly year to year.
Rather than pass the bond in pieces, the school district is asking voters for the full amount of what it would cost to complete the project.
McMurtrey said building in phases would cost more since the cost will continue to rise with each new bond.
The school board asked for a $34.5 million bond in September to complete the same project but was denied by 73 votes. The district is seeking $37 million this time to cover the increased cost of construction.
"We feel prudent to do it once. It's better for tax payers to do it this way," McMurtrey said.
McMurtrey said the school bond committee recommendation was: "Do it right the first time," and that it was time to finish the school and make it a ninth- though 12th-grade building.
The committee meets routinely and is made up of 37 members representing each school, parents, alumni, business owners, representatives from Mountain Home Air Force Base and other citizens.
The bond will add 28 classrooms, a performing arts wing with an auditorium, a professional technical building and a new gymnasium complex.
$1.5 million dollars of the bond is earmarked to replace the roof on Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium at the current high school.
The bow trusses are failing there and McMurtrey said the district has babied the trusses as long as they can, including wrapping them in steel, but it is time to replace them.
The new roof can't wait, even if the bond fails. McMurtrey said the school district will have to adjust the district's five-year maintenance plan to finance the roof if the bond fails.
The district will also have to use the plant facility and federal forest funds the school receives to replace the roof.
The school district uses those funds to purchase new technology as well as textbooks. All of the district's plant facility and federal forest funds would have to go towards the roof for the next two years.
The school district's bonding capacity, the most amount of money it can owe on bonds at one time, is five percent of the assessed value within the district, or approximately $65 million currently.
The district still owes $6.9 million from the last bond. If the current $37 million bond passes, the district will still have the ability to bond approximately $21 million.
The school district has scheduled bond election question and answer meetings from noon to 1 p.m. and 6-7 p.m. on April 9 and 16 at the school district administration office.
The bond election is April 29. If the bond passes, the project would be completed by 2011 at the earliest.