(Milford)– Voters in the Okoboji Community School District will be voting on a $67 million bond issue this coming fall. The school board voted unanimously Wednesday evening to put the measure on the ballot for the November election. Superintendent Todd Abrahamson says if approved, the measure would fund a new elementary school and address aging infrastructure and space needs at the high school…
“I know that’s a high price tag but construction costs have gone up from $185 to $225 a square foot to now $300 and upwards of $400 a square foot. The costs have leveled out but the cost will never go back down.”
Abrahamson says two factors have led up to the need…
“All of this is due to our overcrowding, above capacity, and then the infrastructure of the older buildings at the high school and the elementary. It’s just in the long run more economical to build versus trying to renovate, particularly when we’re landlocked at the elementary, and over half that building, or close to half that building, is 100, 100 plus years-old.”
Abrahamson says that if approved, the current tax rate would remain due to one factor in particular…
“Increased valuation. So we’re able to maintain that tax rate right where it’s at and there’s a possibility that if the valuations, which to my understanding will continue to increase, that rate would still stay the same and maybe tick down a little bit, but in the end it will remain at $9.25.”
Abrahamson says the location of a new elementary building is something they’re still working on…
“We’re in negotiations right now and that’s about all I can say since a lot of those discussions happen behind closed sessions. But it will be built on a new site and once we wrap all of that up, then we will release that information.”
The new Elementary School has an estimated cost of $38 to $42 million. Work at the high school has been put at roughly $22 million to $25 million. Abrahamson added that it’s important to advance the measure now…
“And now under the new law just remember you only go to the voters once a year, in the month of November. That’s why we decided to go this fall. Two fold is because if you continue to wait another year, another year at five percent just regular increase in cost, particularly construction costs at five percent, that just adds another two million each year to the bond. And then the other part is I retire in a year, June 30th, 2025 and the board also felt that since I’ve been through this before, let’s do this before Todd retires and because the new Superintendent, which starts then July 1 of 2025, and that’s not fair to the new Superintendent in a short timeframe to try to go to the voters right away in November of ’25.”
Abrahamson says they’ll be holding a series of public informational meetings once a site for a new elementary building is nailed down.
