(Milford)– The Okoboji School Board Wednesday evening held the first of four public informational meetings leading up to the November 5th vote on a 69 million dollar bond issue for a new elementary school and to make renovations and additions at the high school. School officials site increasing enrollment, a lack of space and aging facilities as the primary needs. Elementary Principal Dave Vonk says a portion of that building is believed to be about 100 years old, and that even newer portions of the facility aren’t conducive to today’s educational environment. And he says predictions for continued enrollment growth in coming years only compounds things…
“I mentioned during the meeting tonight that a few years ago our current 4th graders, when they were in 2nd grade we had 15 students come in August we weren’t planning on. That’s possible to happen any year. And as of right now we have no extra classrooms available. So if we have an influx of students we aren’t planning on, we do not have the ability to add classroom space, and that’s a big deal. I’m not saying it’s always the right decision to add that fifth section, but not having the ability to make that choice because of space restraints, that’s unfortunate. I think that we should be able to make that choice based on what’s best for kids rather than what we are able to do based on our space.”
Vonk adds the fact the current elementary is land locked is also an issue and a safety concern when it comes to dropping off and picking up students…
“It’s difficult to do that well within a city block where we have streets around only three sides of the building. We have no parking lot and we’re trying to dismiss and drop off 500 students at once. That’s a tall task. I will say we’ve made some positive adjustments over the year and overall I’m proud of what we do, but there are definite safety concerns. Students walking home with the traffic, even vehicles running into each other. We haven’t had an accident for awhile but I almost witnessed one the other day again. It’s difficult with the space that we have dropping off and picking up students in a safe and efficient manner, for sure.”
Vonk says there are also safety and security concerns with having students on the second floor of the building.
School Board President Juli Johnson says the board is very conscious of the 69 million dollar bond that’s being proposed. 42 million of that would go toward the new elementary with the remaining 27 million dollars being earmarked for additions and renovations at the high school. Johnson says the board did have some discussions early on about having separate referendums but opted to lump them together…
“At the end of the day it just made a lot more financial sense. It was much more fiscally responsible to actually do it in one bond issue for 69 million because if we would break it up it actually became more expensive to our taxpayers over time.”
Johnson adds they’ll bring another measure to the voters in November 2025 should this one fail…
“Our capacity issues do not go away. We have continued increasing enrollment and we would go back to the voters again in November of 2025. We are only able to go to the voters once per year now, so we would go back in November 2025. What we would face is potentially having to ask the voters to approve a tax increase because a year from now costs will be higher.”
Johnson says under this proposal, the tax rate, even if the measure passes, will remain at $9.25 per $1,000 of valuation, saying ongoing increases in valuation will make that possible.
Johnson also explained the board’s rationale in opting not to add on to the existing elementary and building on a new site…
“In the end it was actually five to seven million dollars more expensive to add on to our current elementary school, a lot due to the fact that we would have to go two stories and also the demolition of the older portion. And in addition to that, in order to add on to our current elementary school we would have had to relocate the students for two years and that’s just not conducive, it’s not providing a conducive learning environment for our students.”
Three additional public informational meetings will be held prior to the November 5th vote. The next one is set for 6:00 pm Wednesday, September 25th at the Okoboji High School Auditorium.
