USD 333 board discusses options for facilities plan

Ongoing discussions by the Unified School District 333 board of education about a possible bond issue to address improvements to the Concordia Junior-Senior High School building continued during its regular meeting Monday night, with superintendent of schools Quentin Breese presenting an update on a joint study session district representatives had with members of the Concordia city commission on April 19.
During the March meeting of the board of education, Tucker Peddicord, Lighthouse Construction Guidance, presented an updated plan for upgrades to the junior-senior high school building with an estimated cost of $23,128,522.
Peddicord also presented an option for the construction of a new auxiliary gymnasium on 10th Street that would have three courts and could be utilized by the school district and the public. The estimated cost is $6,885,269.
Peddicord said that the school district would have access to two courts during school days for physical education classes and athletic practices and the public would have access to one court for activities such as walking, pickleball, etc.
The city commissioners were asked during the study session if they would consider a one-percent special sales tax to be included as part of the funding for the facilities improvements.
It was reported to the city commissioners that a $30 million, 25-year bond with no sales tax could result in a mill levy increase of 21.250 mills. The same bond with a one-percent sales tax for 10 years would result in a tax increase of 13 mills and the bond with a sales tax increase for the full term of 25 years would result in a tax increase of 7.250 mills.
Breese stated, during the study session, he is looking to possibly have the bond issue and the sales tax issue on the ballot in November.
Last year, voters in the USD 333 rejected a $48.5 million bond issue to fund facilities improvements, and city of Concordia voters rejected a one-percent general purpose sales tax to help fund the improvements.
During the school board meeting on Monday night, Breese reported that conversations during the study session resulted in a potential support to place the sales tax issue on the ballot, but felt that the city commission was not interested in a joint recreation/gym space.
“I think they (city commission) are willing to put it on the ballot. I just don’t think there was a rah-rah-rah behind it. I just feel like, if it is going to be some kind of an endeavor that we’re going to get behind as a community, it needs to have more of an excitement about it,” Breese said. “Again, I think they are willing to put it on the ballot, but I am not sure they are willing to stick their neck out and push it as much as it needs.”
Concordia Mayor Chuck Lambertz issued a statement on what was discussed by the school board during the meeting. Read the entire statement on page ?.
Breese said that the city expressed possible interest in utilizing the sales tax to complete its own recreation facility that would allow more individual control over scheduling.
“With that in mind, we feel there would be no ability to utilize sales tax to offset the bond. Therefore, we have worked again with our construction management team and consultants to arrive at a lower cost solution of approximately $15 million instead of that $30 million price tag” Breese said. “So whenever you are talking about that, you are eliminating pieces of the puzzle.”
Breese said that school district representatives didn’t feel like there was an appetite for utilizing sales tax for athletic facilities at all and there was no appetite for sales tax extending for more than 10 years.
“Therefore, we are working on a property tax solution only,” Breese said.
The facility upgrades included the plan are:
• $2.4 million spent on 25 percent of the district’s current HVAC needs
• $2.6 million on ADA compliance improvements
• $1.4 million on electrical upgrades in classrooms and main panels
• $2.25 million for science labs, turning two rooms into one with proper lab equipment and ventilation and prep room
• $1.5 million for classroom updates with flooring, furniture, space
• $500,000 for restroom updates with new fixtures, flooring, ventilation
• $200,000 on secured entrances
• $300,000 on fire safety
• $250,000 on demolition and infill of swimming pool
• $900,000 on roof and minimal exterior repairs
The proposal presented to the board is for there to be two questions placed on the ballot, including the $15 million, 25-year bond issue for the improvements to academic spaces and one asking for additional funds to construct a basic gymnasium space on school district property that would bring the total estimated cost to $20 million.
The mill levy increase for the $15 million bond issue would be 8.750 mills. The increase for the $20 million plan would be $12.250 mills.
“We feel like cutting it down to $15 million, cutting it down to just bare bones as much as we can get, to try to get something through to help us be sustainable for the next decade,” Breese said.
Board member Kevin Pounds said that he has been on the board through TIF (tax increment financing), during which the district gave up somewhere between $1.5 and $1.7 million in taxes and that the board signed off on supporting the city’s plans for a housing development on the site of the old hospital and will not reap the benefit of taxes.
“And the reality is, for all of us, the sales tax component is someone else paying 40 percent, driving up and down the highway or coming to town, that our tax payers don’t have to pay,” Pounds said. “Education should not be only funded by the property tax owner of this country.”
Pounds said that a city sales tax increase needs to be 15 years because that would pay for half of the bond issue.
“As long as I have been in town, we have provided our facilities for recreation and we also donated to recreation,” Pounds said.
Board member Tony Miller also mentioned the use of the school facilities by the city.
“They want to continue to use our facilities for rec. We are paying for cleanup. We are taking the full brunt of the utilities, everything on that situation. We are not reaping anything from it. I told you (Breese) and Kelly (Struebing, USD 333 director of operations) a month or so ago, shut it down. Just shut it down. No other district in the state of Kansas, that I know of, and maybe there is, allows people to use their school facilities,” Miller said. “It bothers me. We are trying to work together with a proposal that would benefit both entities and the community.”
Breese said that district representatives went to the city commission with a proposal that would benefit both the school district and the city.
“If they build their own facility, they are going to have to staff it, they are going to have to clean it,” Breese said.
Breese told the board that they are looking for direction on how to proceed.
“I want to know what our options are. Why are we even talking about this if they (city commission) are not going to play ball with us? Let’s at least get an answer there and then we can go forward,” board president Bryan Bombardier said.
Board member Brad Berk said that when it comes down to it, the city commission is not going to decide the issue and school board is not going to decide the issue, the voters are.
No decision was made by the board.

Statement from Concordia Mayor Chuck Lambertz

I am tremendously optimistic and encouraged about the hiring of Chad Eshbaugh for our High School Principal position. I certainly believe we need strong leaders in our schools now more than ever.
I wanted to take this opportunity to share my perspective on the city's side of the conversation about the study session; which can be viewed in its entirety by going to www.concordiaks.org and clicking on the Commission Meeting Videos tab.
I am speaking as a single commissioner, and certainly do not speak for the commission as a whole. I have held back comments numerous times after being told that school administrative team members, in two private meetings among school staff and community members, are spreading the narrative that the City is not being supportive or cooperative with the school district.
To read the comments made by school board members (none of whom actually attended the study session) and district administration at their recent board meeting is truly disheartening. To say or imply the city is not supportive of our school district and the clear physical needs of our facilities is a blatant and purposeful misrepresentation of our dialogue.
The fact is, we as a city do look forward and strive to find opportunities to maximize taxpayer money and find partnerships with other community entities. This fact has clearly been evidenced by the collaboration with NCKMed and CCCC in the last few years. The City, 333 and CCCC ALL benefit from the investments we ALL made in the ball fields. Comments regarding the district, “shutting it all down‚” are simply absurd. The return on investment for the TIF investment the community supported two decades ago is a significant multiplier of whatever revenues would have been gained without the TIF.
The City supported the school by agreeing to place the option for a 30 year sales tax for the last bond on the ballot, which overwhelmingly failed.
The feedback we offered in our study session was to recognize the message voters made clear in the last ballot effort; they did not support 30 years of increased sales tax and they did not support the scope and style of the proposed renovations.
The City is working towards finding an opportunity to support additional recreational space for all community members and if that could be incorporated as part of the overall school improvements that would be great. As a whole, the community has and does benefit from sharing our limited recreational spaces. However, what we have heard time and time again from students, parents and residents is the reality that the school needs to focus just as much, if not more, on the academic side of their proposals. We need to bolster the academic opportunities for our children while continuing to support athletics and athletic space.
What we told the lone school board member and school administration staff at our study session was that placing any sales tax measure on the ballot would be the easiest part of their effort; working to gain public support for the much-needed renovations was what they would most benefit from focusing on moving forward, prior to any discussions of another ballot initiative.
That is why we encouraged USD 333 to reach out and engage with residents who voted down the last ballot and work towards putting forth a plan they could and would support, rather than simply scaling down a version of the past proposal simply to fit a relatively arbitrary budget number. This effort, far more than the City placing a measure on a ballot, will lead the District towards the support they need to get their job done.
I understand how important and necessary the renovations and improvements are for our district. I also understand the value that a sales tax component has in helping reduce the burden any bond proposal will have for our property taxpayers. We need this to succeed, our children need this to succeed; that's why it's so important to learn from the missteps of the last bond proposal and apply those lessons moving forward.
We've seen this approach be successful. After several public defeats supporting improved/new facilities, our medical center board and administration went back to square one, recognizing they needed a plan the community could support while also recognizing they had some work to do within the organization to help improve public perception and interaction. That approach worked and we now have a remarkable medical facility to support the work our remarkable staff perform. We've seen the way leadership at CCCC has changed the internal dynamics of their organization and engaged public support for infrastructure and they have since broken ground on several new additions/renovations, the most recent of which looks to be an impressive CTE building.
This community can and will support the right leaders with the right project at the right scope. To place this responsibility on the City/City Commission for not being better cheerleaders is a scapegoat and we all know better.
As a counselor, I often have the difficulty of having conversations with people letting them know my job is not first and foremost to be a cheerleader and tell them what they want to hear, but rather to try and help them make sense of what is actually going on. These can be difficult and uncomfortable conversations, but only then can we really get to the task of focusing on the work ahead for the growth and/or change we are striving towards. That's when we all get to be cheerleaders and see our goals and projects succeed.
I said the same during the study session and still hope and believe these conversations can lead towards a successful path forward in addressing the issues and implementing the changes we need in our school district.
Concordia Mayor Chuck Lambertz