Friday, March 29, 2024

Pateros district patrons invited to discuss possible construction bond or levy

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Pateros School District patrons are being invited to the Nov. 24 Pateros School Board meeting to discuss the possibility of a school capital improvement bond or capital levy.

Pateros superintendent Lois Davies said district officials don't want to run a levy or bond now. "It's the worst possible time." But circumstances are such, Davies said, that district officials have to look at the possibility

The building's heating system has been nursed along past its time, she said; the three units were installed when the building was modernized in 1981 and one of them recently broke down twice. District officials have been warned the others are in a perilous state. (Davies said the repair people told her, "These aren't made to last this long.") The heating system also controls air circulation, and that's really important for kids who have asthma, Davies said. The district has received one bid for a replacement system, which would include air conditioning as well as heat and air circulation; it was approximately $600,000, Davies said.

The lighting system also needs to be replaced, Davies said, part of district officials' efforts to reduce energy use. Then there's the telephone system and bell system, both dating from 1981, and the parking lot on Warren Avenue; city officials have asked the school district about paving it. In 2006 board members voted to issue a $300,000 general obligation bond, which paid for repairs to the school roof and new floors in the commons. But that's about the limit the school can raise without voter approval; there are caps (which depend on assessed valuation) that determine how much money Pateros (or any other school district) can raise, and those depend in part on how much debt the district has already.

The two options available to district officials and district patrons are a capital improvement bond or a capital levy, both of which would have to be approved by public vote. Passing a bond would require approval from at least 60 percent of participating voters, Davies said, and the district would receive the money when the bond was issued. The money would be paid back over time. A capital levy would pass with a simple majority (50 percent or more), but like a maintenance and operations levy, the district would receive the money as taxes are collected. A capital levy would have to be spent for designated projects, Davies said. The options will be discussed at the Nov. 24 board meeting.

In other business at the October school board meeting, Davies reported that new security cameras will be installed before mid-November and some new doors have been installed. More new doors have been ordered. In addition, school officials have changed the hours for one of the school's custodians so that he is in the building later in the day.

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