Schools

Subcommittee Will Recomend School Bond

Panel still has to decide which projects will included, amount of the bond and when the vote will be scheduled.

The whether the district should pursue a school bond agreed Thursday night that it should.

"There is a lot of work still to be done, but yes, we will recommend to the school board that it pursue a school bond," tri-chair Mary Schusterbauer said after the meeting.

The subcommittee, , must decide what will go into this bond – that will determine when the bond vote will be set. The maximum capacity of the bond is about $24 million, which could only be achieved in a February election.

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If the bond goes to the voters in May, August or November of 2012, the most the district could collect is $13 million.

The bond would extend the current 7 mills from the previous school bond.

Find out what's happening in Ferndalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Declining property values are a problem

The reason for the drop in bond capacity from February to the other months is declining property values. Bonding capacity is based on a five-year average of taxable property percentage growth, officially updated in May of each year.

Currently, the five-year average from 2007 to 2011 in Ferndale is -1.86 percent. In May, when the valuations are updated, a 4.91 percent value from 2007 will be replaced by a projected decline of -6 percent, according to the district's financial advisors Stauder-Barch. The projected decline in valuation will drop the five-year growth average to -4.05 percent, thus dropping the district's maximum bonding capacity by about $11 million.

Taxable Value Growth History  
Year   
Growth Rate $734,412,830 2006
$771,500,120 2007 4.91 percent $778,356,320 2008 0.89 percent $774,491,680 2009 -0.50 percent $708,635,130 2010 -8.50 percent $665,307,360
2011 -6.11 percent $625,388,918 (est) 2012 -6 percent

Added to the complexity of the issue, a February date for a bond election coincides with the tentatively scheduled Republican primary. , which is Feb. 28.

While some subcommittee members expressed great concern about sending out a bond vote in February, Ferndale Public Schools  Superintendent Gary Meier said that in his experience the need for the schools outweighs politics. "My experience with Republican voters is that they have always been very supportive of school issues," said Meier, who worked in a heavily Republican school district in Ohio.

What could be in or could be out

After announcing that the subcommittee would recommend that the district pursue the bond, it spent the rest of Thursday's meeting deliberating the projects that could go into the bond question.

"Everybody around the table should talk about what they see as the must-haves – then we'll add up the must-haves," said Marie Haener-Patti, one of the subcommittee's three chairs. "Nothing that is a nice- to-have but what is a must."

All of the projects address infrastructure issues – from asbestos removal in the middle and high school, which is the same building, to replacing fencing and railings at various buildings.

(View a list of the projects .)

As Haener-Patti went around the table asking members for the one thing they'd like to see in the bond, mechanical upgrades became a clear favorite. This included upgrades on heating and cooling, lighting and the mechanics of the pool. Others suggested technology upgrades, bathroom upgrades and a kitchen at Roosevelt.

"What is the work we need to do to make sure that the buildings remain open and operating," subcommittee member Amy Butters asked. "The whole thing with showed us faults in infrastructure. There was a lot of talk about DTE's fault for not maintaining equipment and that made me think about our purpose and our responsibility to keep our facilities up and running."

Preliminarily, the subcommittee sifted out about $20 million in projects of priority. Those included mechanical and technological upgrades, upgrades to the pool's decades old boiler and asbestos removal from the high school/middle school.

However, more deliberation on that $20 million is expected next week when the subcommittee will meet on Wednesday and Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the .

$24 million or $13 million?

The subcommittee has to tie up everything in a $13-$24 million package for a February vote, or a $13 million or less package for a May or later vote.

"I don't believe that there isn't a penny of that $24 million that we could use on needed projects and not feel bad about it," Sophiea said.

Haener-Patti wanted to squeeze the number down.

"I personally think that it needs to be known that we squeezed as much as possible to come back with a bond that is defensible," she said. "It feels nit-picky to go at it that way, but it's necessary. When I look at an item that says kitchen remodeling for $425,000, I say what can you do with 60 percent of that?"

The kitchen item would be for , the only elementary school in the district without a kitchen.

Meier warned against paring down costs of the projects too much.

"We have full cooking kitchens at and , and Roosevelt doesn't. It creates a real issue in terms of equity, in terms of quality and the ability to serve," Meier said. "I would be very cautious that we don’t underestimate the cost of anything so we can't deliver on that project. A $400,000 kitchen -- and we do 60 percent of that and then we can't deliver? It makes us all look bad."

Butters said the debate isn't what necessarily needs to be done and not done, but what is the priority and what the voters feel comfortable approving.

"I think we're all in agreement that everything on the list needs to be done," she said. "The question is how it is going to be paid for and what the voters will approve."

The amount of the bond, which will determine when it will go to the voters, needs to be decided on with a final recommendation for the Aug. 15 board of education meeting. Once recommended to the board, a separate public entity will form to campaign for the bond.

The subcommittee will meet again at 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday and Thursday in the Harding Administration Center to finalize its bond recommendation.


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