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$19.11M vote on Feb. 7 ballot
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · November 25, 2016
A $19.11 million referendum to build additions at two school buildings will appear on the Feb. 7 ballot.
The West Branch Board of Education last week formally accepted a petition from a community group to place the measure on the ballot for voters inside the school borders in Cedar and Johnson counties.
Superintendent Kevin Hatfield said estimates put the project around $21 million, so the district will get the rest of the money from Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) and Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE, formerly the School Infrastructure Sales and Service tax or Local Option Sales Tax) funding.
The school district will host a public meeting 6:30 p.m. Nov. 28 at West Branch High School to answer questions.
“It is done,” School Board President Mike Colbert said after accepting the petition. “I feel like we should adjourn and go home.”
Colbert alluded to more than four years since the school district formed a committee in 2012 that created a 15-year Masters Facilities Plan that finished in January 2014. Since then, the school board completed many of the smaller projects in that plan in preparation for this signature project — additions to West Branch High School and Hoover Elementary.
The additions will absorb the West Branch Middle School pupils and provide space for expected future enrollment growth.
Hatfield said the project will also include “21st-century security features” and event parking at the elementary school that will use the land left behind when WBMS comes down.
“Our work’s just begun,” school board member Julie Sexton said, referring to educating the public about the project.
Hatfield said the public meeting will include representatives of Struxture Architects and HBK Engineering, and possibly public finance company Piper Jaffray, which will guide the school district on selling the bonds should the voters approve the referenda.
Two questions will appear on the ballot, both needing at least 60 percent approval to pass:
• One asking for permission to increase the school district’s property tax rate from $2.70 to $3.50 per $1,000 assessed valuation.
• The second asking permission to actually borrow the $19.11 million. Without the increased property tax rate, the school could not afford to borrow the money.
Colbert called the petition presentation at the Nov. 14 school board meeting “ceremonial” because committee members actually delivered the petition to him on Wednesday, Nov. 9.
Committee members who appeared at the Nov. 14 meeting included Jeni Schiele, Chris Bower, Carolyn Harold and Lindsay Seydel. The school board had to organize a committee independent of the district to properly circulate and submit the petition.
“Let’s get it done,” Bower said.
The petition included 121 signatures, Colbert said, though one was invalid. He said he, personally, could “easily read” 93 of the signatures and that a minimum of 86 signatures were needed.
Cedar County Auditor Cari Gritton said 341 people voted in the last school board election, and that at least 25 percent of that — 86 (85.25 rounded up) valid signatures — were needed to get the petition on the ballot.
After the board voted unanimously to accept the petition, board member Mike Owen thanked “everybody who brought us to this point.”
“So many people worked so hard and long,” he said. “I’m excited about the possibilities.”
Should the measure pass, the plan calls for WBHS to become a 6-12 school and Hoover Elementary to return to a preK-5th grade school. Right now, fifth graders meet in renovated space at WBMS.
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