Morning Edition; Joplin Schools Bond

It's more than addition on KRPS. Municipal elections are being held in Missouri tomorrow, and voting science will be open across the state starting at 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. Joplin residents will vote on an extension of a bond that would raise an additional 25 million dollars in hopes of constructing a new elementary school at Dover Hill, and fund the construction of key additions at Kelsey Norman Elementary School. If passed, the bond would not raise taxes, but would keep the service debt rate at 91 cents per $100 of assessed property value. According to the school's website, Joplin homeowners would sustain paying $170 per year in property taxes for a $100,000 house. On Friday afternoon at Joplin School's administration building, I met with Dave Weaver with VogueS Joplin and Dr. Melinda Moss Superintendent of Joplin Schools to speak about the bond and what's possible if it passes. I first asked what the bond means for Joplin if it is passed and how it would improve Joplin schools. Well, it's a no tax increase bond issue, so it's utilizing the existing debt service levy that

is there now because we have the bonding capacity that we can issue a $25 million bond, and the purpose of that is to replace two of our aged elementary schools. Both of those elementary schools, Columbia and West Central, were built in the 1920s, so they're approaching 100 years old, and as we know, education has changed in the last 100 years, and so they have made due and cobbled up and rearranged those buildings as much as possible for things like special education services that back in the 20s, we didn't offer physical therapies, speech therapy, learning disability resource rooms, all the things now that we do, and as well, we weren't feeding children like we do today, and now we feed breakfast, lunch, and in some cases, even dinners. So particularly at Columbia, that kitchen is down the hall in a closet from where they're going down to feed 200 students in the cafeteria, so many reasons, and then the other piece of that

is the structural integrity of Columbia in particular. That whole campus is only 2.3 acres, and there's been some issues in particularly the last five years or so that have caused the building to start to sink and crack, and we've had numerous structural engineers and firms come out to look at that, but so far there's not been an adequate solution to mitigate those problems, so it really is a matter of safety as well with Columbia, and we know that regardless of what happens with this bond issue, we can no longer offer educational services in the long term at Columbia. So it would combine those two older sites into a new campus at Dover Hill, and Dover Hill is a 17-acre property that our city has donated to the school district and partnership with the district, so we're trying to be as fiscally responsible as we can with this, and the other piece of that is Kelsey Norman Elementary. Kelsey Norman is an elementary that has

just simply reached its capacity and exceeded its capacity. We have classrooms meeting on the stage, in the cafeteria, in the hallways, and we are using trailers out the back of that building as well, so when our facility committee looked at all the issues across our district, and all 14 campuses and so on and so forth, they really honed in though those three as the most emergent needs in our district, and so knowing that we have the bonding capacity now to do this without raising taxes, we felt like we needed to take advantage of that opportunity, and it has all come together to do so. This sounds like we must do this now issue, because I've read in the globe about the problems at the school that's sinking, and I dry past the school on the seventh street, and that's an elementary school, and that's hard, so many cars are going past that, and this would consolidate both schools, and what I know now is the disc golf course. You know, let me ask you

a question, you send your first grader to that school, the distance from that door to the seventh straight-of-five lane road is not very far, and it puts a real burden on those teachers to really watch those kids closely, and so it's a safety issue, that road was probably very small when they built that school, and maybe one lane in each direction, and not only that, but it's a very old building, and so the Dover Hill is much safer in so many ways that it'll be a great opportunity for these. The urgency at Columbia has created this sense of urgency, but because of the tornado, there was a lot that had to be done in a short amount of time, and you know, that's approaching 10 years ago, so why now? And all that we've done in the district, you look at a new high school, you look at East Middle School, new building, south middle school, fairly new north remodeled, the two buildings that have been left out, if I could use that word, is these two elementary schools,

these kids have been going to school in 100-year-old buildings, and everybody else has had a building that might be around 1964, so at the oldest. So this is an opportunity to give the kids that these two schools, what other students have been enjoying for a long time, and the teachers. And it's just an opportunity, the leadership of the Joplin School District, they analyze the numbers, and they said, we have an opportunity here, and I would add, if you've watched Bond Interstrates, they're at an all-time low. So what an opportunity at this point in time to take advantage of this and to help these children? Okay, over the past 13 years, Joplin residents have really risen to the occasion passing bonds in about 2007 and 2012. The school district has been able to raise almost 120 million dollars through bonds, one new high school, two new middle schools, two other elementary schools, and if past the obligation, I just want to clarify, this would be capped at $25 million, once you've reached that, it wouldn't be extended unless

voters approved it again. That bond that is there now was issued in 2013, it's a 20-year bond, so if we do nothing, we will not be debt-free until 2033. So this would be a second bond that we would issue in 20, and it would go to 2040. So it's really a seven-year extension of the existing debt service levy, and some people ask, well, why do we need to vote on this? Well, as a public school district, we want to be good stewards of the funds that we are allotted, and districts cannot engage in long-term indebtedness, we cannot issue bonds without a vote of the people, regardless of whether it's raising taxes or not. So that's how this is a no-tax increased bond issue. And I saw in the frequently asked questions, websites, did even after this bond has passed, the service debt levy is still below the state average for Joplin. Yes, we, when you, even when you combine our operating levy and our debt service levy,

we are significantly below state average, and we're even below most of our neighbors and other schools in our own county. So we have a very conservative tax rate. You know, one of the questions is we've passed several bonds and we built a lot of buildings in the last 10 or 12 years. If you go back between 1950 and now, there was a period of time where we've got very few buildings. And so I don't, wasn't there. I don't know the circumstances of why that was, but this leadership team inherited that. And so there's been a little bit of catch-up to do. But the, the fact remains, all the stuff that's gone on the past, this is a new leadership team that's looking at these two old buildings and saying we, we need to be equitable to the students and teachers and parents on these buildings and help them to get whatever they else has. So to be able to do this without increasing taxes and address the two oldest schools at a time at record low bond interest rates, I can't imagine a better time to vote yes on this than now.

You know, in a way, the pandemic has lowered interest rates and helped the school district. You know, even though this was going to be a voter on an April and pushed to now June, so that's a very good point you bring up about interest rates. The building at Columbia is not getting any better. And so that's, that has created a sense of urgency to particularly help those teachers and children to get into this building. And so yes, vote on June 2nd is really going to help us to get that underway and particularly for the students and teachers at Columbia to help them out. And I think that's a great opportunity. And you bring up a good point, David, about Columbia not getting any better. We've had crack monitors on several points on that building and we read those regularly and then send them to structural engineers to analyze. And we've had to close our gym, which also serves as the safe room there. And we're on very borrowed time. It's kind of, as David alluded, we've

waited a long time to address this issue and we've kicked the can down the alley just as long as we can and it can no longer be ignored. And you brought up about feeding students and that is a magnified now during the pandemic with the students and the needs, especially in this in Joplin. I know that when school was at a session, my wife would take our two kids to the students to the lunch and she would see some of her students and she knows that some of the circumstances there's living in are not the best. Right. We've we've served about 350,000, if not more meals since the COVID wellness break and we're serving right through summer school and continuing to do that through the summer. So these schools, I think to one story that I hear over and over and over, or at least in public media is that schools aren't just learning facilities any longer. Yes, and I think that's a great point to segue into why does this matter if my children don't go to that school and what does this mean for the community at large within Joplin because we know that property

values greatly hinge on the reputation of your schools and your school district and we kind of rise and fall together and so this is important to the entire community and if we're not able to do what we have honed in on as the best solution, then we'll have to look at other options because we know we can't stay open at Columbia. So that could create even more overcrowding in our other campuses as we have to disperse those students elsewhere and so the ripple effect of that is not positive and I didn't articulate that very clearly. Well, I know I would add to that I served on the long range facilities committee and I noticed the the cost per square foot or whatever those are two of the most expensive buildings in the district operate. So the cost per student, these new buildings will be significant less. That benefits every child in our district because

now we have significantly more dollars to spend amongst the district as a whole that aren't being consumed by 100 year old buildings without adequate insulation, without at windows, HVAC. You're going to have the most efficient and economically friendly buildings replacing two that are very much not that way. So this does help everybody in our district directly and indirectly. You know, I lived in the city of Duquesne for a long time and we replaced a very old building there at Soaring Heights and there weren't a lot of parent teacher meetings and things and they didn't have a large auditorium. The Soaring Heights has brought that community together and I've been there several times as my son was a student there. It's just great to come into that auditorium, meet the community, meet the people you see and come in and watch our children perform. These news, the school has that new auditorium to put our kids in an area to perform and to be seen and kind of a gathering place is what Soaring Heights has meant to me and it changed our community. It's they say it brings growth. Go out and look at Soaring Heights at East

Middle School. There's housing going on everywhere around there. There's new freeway interchange. So this is going to be good for the city of Joplin, especially in the northwest part of town and I believe that we're going to see a tremendous growth and a lot of good things come out of this for that part of town and so that's the exciting part about this opportunity. Yeah, speaking to your point about growth, I see that around the high school. Still houses being built, there's a I don't know, I think it's a fruit or smoothie stand across the street from high school now. Yes, and now there's a line they are all the time. That's become a very popular place with that age group. Exactly and also home values, excellent points and absolutely when my wife and I are not being from here looked to buy a house, we looked at schools and we looked the locations and what we could afford. And that's the point of what we're trying to do. We're trying to give the people in these two 90 year old buildings the same opportunities the children at south and it is not in day. And from my perspective, is that really fair to those students and teachers? I think this is an equitable issue to to give them the same things

and that's what an opportunity. Well, and we've talked a lot about the size of the classrooms at these two campuses. They're 651 square feet and all of our other campuses across the district are 900 to 1,100 square feet. So when you think about what we're asking students to do today and what our workforce is telling us that they need, they want students that can collaborate and do project based learning and be proficient with their technology and that requires space to move about. And just a different format than in the 1920s when perhaps we had a small writing tablet and we were in a single chair with a sleeve desk. Now you have a chrome book or some other form of technology and larger textbooks and there's just they're on top of each other in these campuses and you don't realize it so much then you go to the others but you're stepping over one child to get to the other and that's the other thing since the pandemic and we've had

to postpone our election is they're asking us to social distance as much as possible and so there's the safety issue of that now in these tiny cramped quarters. One thing I thought of while both you're talking is also when a teacher is looking to work here and they see 90-year-old buildings they're like well I got to go maybe they already know but it'd be easier to attract talents if you had updated buildings also I suppose. Absolutely. All right anything else? Maybe just just one thing I know that I received some questions about last two of the school board voted to give a small increase but when you have 1,200 employees a small increase can amount to a lot. There are two different funds the the building comes out of a debt service fund the the teacher salaries and things come out of an operating budget. The the debt service you issue bonds and that is a fixed cost and and so the district's been working on this for for a long time. The the teacher raises came out of some discussions it started before this pandemic was even in our

thoughts and so you know operating budgets I think boards can adjust to changing situations to have that but there are two different things. If you vote yes which we hope everybody will do it's two different pots of money that are do not have an effect in each other if I understand that correctly. That is correct and you can't take one to pay for the other and the other piece of that data is is it was a modest raise it was $250 added to the base salary for the year for the year. $250 a year raise so and just like you were talking about how do our debt service and operating levies compare and we're much lower we have also struggled to be competitive with our salary schedule and that was one of the goals that the board gave me when they hired me about three years ago was that they wanted to make our salary schedule sufficient to attract and retain quality instructors and our neighboring districts salary schedules are still outpacing

joblin but we're trying to close that gap and of course with COVID-19 we had to really scale back what we had hoped to do but we are solid in our bonding capacity and we're confident that we can build a quality sustainable campus and stay within our budget. We're using already the construction management team of crosslin construction with corner gear architects and they're working together as these designs are proposed to make sure that we can actually build it and stay within budget. One other thing that's kind of ironic is that during this pandemic we often refer back to the Spanish who of 1918 and trying to think of their similarities. The irony is that these two old schools were built not long after that pandemic and somebody said can we build schools are in a pandemic and I said the two that we're talking about were built right after pandemic so you know this pandemic has provided the opportunity and very low interest rates

and so that's why we think this is an opportune time and we hope that the joblin school district voters will vote yes we need that vote Tuesday because we're two months behind and we need to get going on that so the building can be finished at a convenient time it'd be good to open at the beginning of a school year if possible but the timing is really critical especially since it's been 60 days since his election so we hope that the voters will vote yes and we hesitate to think what would happen if they vote no but it would be a big challenge especially given those cracks at that building they're expanding and so the voters can help these children tremendously and that yes vote on June 2nd June 2nd that is going to be a huge blessing to these children on June 2nd and so we I just encourage everybody to get out and vote yes and help our kids thank you both for your time thank you thank you I spoke with Dave Weaver with vote yes joblin and Dr. Melinda Moss

superintendent of joblin schools last Friday afternoon at the school district's administration building you could find out more about the bond issue at their Facebook page vote yes joblin or at their website joblinschools.org slash bond 2020 and for disclosure my wife Jessica is an employee at joblin schools I've also posted this interview at our news blog krpsnews.com