School Officials Appeal to Taxpayers

The Chinook School Board’s finance committee met on Tuesday evening, February 24, at 6:00 in Chinook High School. The primary objective of the meeting was to discuss the permissive levy estimates and levy requests in advance of the March board meeting. During Tuesday night’s meeting, the group also addressed several dire points, touching on potential budget cuts to explore, although the board will not be making any of those decisions until May or June, after the election.

While the Chinook School Board has yet to determine the sum of the requested levies for May’s election, the group anticipates that levies for building reserve and technology will be run in the high school district and a building reserve levy in the elementary district.

In anticipation for those levies, Chairman of the School Board, Kevin Elias wishes for the community to consider several key factors. “We have been experiencing declining enrollment, and the school district is expected to comply with various unfunded mandates while also addressing maintenance issues in some facilities. All of these situations lead to budget challenges. As a result, we’ve had to cut programs, but that’s not always in the best interest of students. Without cheerleading and speech and drama, for example, some students don’t have access to programs that develop their self-confidence or give them an opportunity to excel in areas that they favor.”

Elias went on to say, “Fixed costs don’t go down just because there are fewer students. We really depend on the mill levies to supplement those costs and to satisfy other school needs.”

In that spirit, both Elias and Superintendent Fred Hofman wish to share several “Did You Know” vignettes to enlighten community members and to generate taxpayer support.

For instance, did you know that this past summer, the school district replaced its elevator at the junior high/high school (JH/HS)? That replacement cost the district approximately $180,000. Similarly, in the past four and a half years, the school has replaced the roof over both the JH/HS auditorium and the library. Furthermore, the roof over the junior high was replaced along with new lighting and a climate control system to make the school’s heating and cooling more efficient. The district took out a loan to cover those replacement and construction costs and is still paying on that note. The roof over the gym remains in need of replacement.

In other facility upkeep, Hofman explained that the gym floor may need to be replaced soon, as well. “We have a floor company coming in March to pull samples from the gym to determine if we can do one more sanding or if the floor needs to be replaced,” he reported.

“Both the camera systems at the Meadowlark and the JH/HS need replacing. A number of them no longer work, creating gaps in coverage as well as security concerns. We’re using a patchwork of three different systems now,” Hofman added.

Another area of concern lies in the boilers, which are nearing the end of their lives in both buildings. “The Meadowlark’s boiler system is on borrowed time. It is anticipated that their boilers will need to be replaced within the next five years. There are three boilers currently in the Meadowlark, but only two work. The third has been torn down and is being used for parts to keep the other two running,” Hofman explained.

“Facility related projects are starting to stack up, and the costs of replacement never go down; it’ll only get more expensive,” Hofman said. “We also have a playground structure at the Meadowlark that needs to be replaced. Playground structures run anywhere from $75,000 for a smaller play structure to $175,000 or more for a larger structure. Although we will target something in between, the dollars for such a project will need to come from the elementary general fund or from our facility funds, if we have any.”

According to school officials, the state legislature limits what schools can request from voters with respect to additional revenue sources. The two levies through which the school can ask for additional financial support are the building reserve (facilities) levy and a technology levy.

Hofman elaborated, “The intent is to give communities the option to supplement the general fund by passing levies in these areas, which allow schools to offload certain expenses that normally come from the general fund to these two other funds.”

Regardless of the success of the levies on the May 5 election, Hofman states: “We will continue in our efforts to be as efficient as we can be with our staffing so we can continue to provide a quality education for our students despite a lack of funding due to declining enrollment. If the levies pass in May, it will buy us more time, but we still need to be proactive.”