(Emmetsburg)– Voters in the Emmetsburg Community School District will again this fall be asked to vote on another bond issue for a new elementary school. A measure that went before voters last November received over 50 percent approval but fell short of the 60 percent needed for passage under Iowa law. That proposal carried a price tag of a little more than $29.7 million. Superintendent Cory Jenness says that due to inflation, the new proposal will come in at about $30,450,000. Even though the cost has gone up, Jenness says the new referendum would have less of an impact on property tax payers than the previous proposal…
“Previously we were asking for our debt service levy to go up to $4.05 which would therefore raise everybody’s taxes about $2.54. We’ve done some changing with how we want to finance this so we’re only going to be asking for a debt service levy of $3.25 which instead will raise taxes $1.59 compared to what they currently are paying. So it saves them about 95 cents compared to what we were asking last year.”
Jenness says this time, they’ll use some revenue from SAVE funds in tandem with a general obligation bond. Jenness says the new 65,000 square foot school would house grades pre-school through 4th grade. It would be constructed on 24 acres near the Emmetsburg campus of Iowa Lakes Community College…
“A lot space, a lot of room that we have to kind of expand, grow. It will help us address some of the issues currently surrounding our current elementary building which is the safety and the security and just the fact that we can’t, I guess, provide the kind of learning spaces that are needed in this day and age.”
Jenness says the Emmetsburg School District is entering into a 28E agreement with the Spencer Family YMCA for before and after school daycare that will be housed out of West Elementary. He says if voters approve the bond issue for a new elementary school, the daycare operation would be expanded with the additional space that would be available at the old elementary, once they move into the new school.
