Facility committee ready to hand recommendation to school board

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

WINFIELD ? The Winfield-Mt. Union Facility Committee had a lot of concerns going into their final meeting, but which plan to present to the school board next week was not one of them.

After three community engagement meetings, in which the public was briefed on the needs of the district and asked to select a building improvement project they felt their fellow voters could get behind, the facility committee met for the final time before they will present their recommendation to the school board next Wednesday.

Committee member Karen Jennings said she thought it was pretty clear that option 1B, which addressed all four of the top priorities ? the practice gym, industrial arts classroom, bringing the pre-K and kindergarten classrooms into the building and building a commons area ? was the project the community wanted.

Jennings said the feeling she got from the community members she?d spoken with was if the district was going to do something, they might as well go all in and build something they wanted, not a building they could live with. ?I?m less likely to vote about something I can live with than something I?m excited about,? she said.

Option 1B came in with the highest price tag of $9.5 million.

This option, should the board accept the committee?s recommendation and move for a general obligation bond issue, would involve a two-question vote. The first would ask voters for the authority to implement a $2.70 general obligation bond levy. The second question would ask for the ability to levy up to $4.05. Both questions would have to pass with a 60 percent affirmative vote.

Sam Johnson, of BLDD Architects, warned the committee that if the second question fails, the district would still have the authority to levy for $7 million, however, they would not be able to do the scaled down version of option 1, as that was not the project described on the ballot. ?The project said you were going to do all of this,? he said pointing to the drawing of option 1B, ?but you don?t have the funds to do all of that. What you would have to do is come back and get that second vote sometime later.?

Johnson also reminded the committee members that if both measures pass, residents would not be taxed for the full $9.5 million, only roughly $7.2 million. The other $2.3 million would come from revenue from the state?s penny sales tax dollars, which would pay for the district?s new HVAC system, which is a component of the bigger project.

And regardless of whether the bond issues pass, the district will use those dollars to put in a new heating and cooling system.

Despite the public engagement campaign, school board member Stacy Buffington still wondered if the community would pass either measure, especially after bond issues in neighboring communities ? Danville and Ft. Madison ? recently failed.

?I?m just concerned there?s not enough public (support),? she said. ?There?s two schools that just had a failed bond issue and people read the papers.?

Buffington was also concerned with the response from faculty and staff.

Earlier in the day, representatives from BLDD met with faculty and staff at W-MU and heard their concerns, which revolved mainly around loosing classroom space.

?It?s human nature, you look at where you?re at and where you might go,? teacher Mitch Wachs said of the faculty meeting and concerns. ?To me, that?s what it felt like sitting in that meeting. We have a tendency of not being able to see past the end of our nose. We don?t look big picture.?

Johnson reaffirmed that once the district receives permission to levy the funds and begin the project, at that point architects would sit down with staff and go over functional needs of each classroom.

The committee will present their recommendation to the board during its monthly meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 14, at 6 p.m., in the media center.