ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ALEEN RATZLAFF
Unified School District 410 board members rolled up their sleeves at Monday’s regular meeting and hashed over priorities for the facility needs and improvements identified by the the district and its architects.
Last week, Howard & Helmer presented preliminary plans at a special meeting.
This week, architect Ken Helmer attended the board meeting and facilitated the discussion that focused on four major projects with estimated costs totaling about $8 million.
— Hillsboro Elementary School space needs and facility improvements at $2.7 million.
— Hillsboro High School facility improvements at nearly $2.5 million.
— A USD 410 transportation and maintenance facility at just over $800,000.
— USD 410 and Tabor College athletic facility, with the district’s cost estimated at $2 million.
Superintendent Gordon Mohn reported on discussions by the task force regarding issues related to partnering with Tabor on the athletic facilities project.
Among the suggestions raised at Monday’s board meeting were considerations that could lower total costs, such as possibly having some improvements at the high school covered by the district’s capital outlay.
A major part of the consideration involved the impact on the projected total mill levy.
Superintendent Gordon Mohn distributed analyses that considered revenues from taxes and state aid for three project-cost scenarios-$4 million, $6 million and $8 million.
For residential property valued at $100,000, the impact of a one-mill increase would be $1 per month, while increasing the mill levy by eight would be $7.66 per month.
For owners of commercial and agricultural properties, the increase would be higher.
After meeting in executive session with the architect for about 15 minutes, the board asked Helmer to come back in January with plans that target a $6 million total, which would include Tabor College’s commitment of $2 million toward the shared athletic facility.
Mohn said the school bond election, tentatively planned for April, will probably be postponed so that the public will understand the issues involved.
In other business the board:
— voted to provide $1,000 toward subsidizing the Standard of Excellent event planned by for HES. The event, attending the movie “Charlotte’s Web,” will reward students for meeting the Standard of Excellence in three of the six areas.
“We reward the athletes for doing well-we need to reward for academics, too,” said board member Gary Andrews.
— accepted Charles Rempel’s resignation as bus driver and custodian and issued two part-time contracts: as a bus driver and as prevention and data coordinator for Communities in School of Marion County.
— approved an employment contract to Helen McMinn to serve as monitor on the Head Start bus.
— approved a supplemental contract to Janet Whisenhunt to serve as the HHS Chess Club sponsor.
