School bond goes to voters Thursday, Sept. 6

Note: The headline for the story in the print edition of the Mountain News incorrectly stated that the bond election would be held on Tuesday. The bond election will be held on Thursday, Sept. 6.

The Mountain Home School District will ask voters to approve a $34.5 million bond issue next Thursday, Sept. 6 that would complete Phase II of the long-delayed high school project.

In 1998, when the district built what is today the junior high, it anticipated at that time going for the Phase II bond to expand the facility into a high school in only a couple of years. But instead of climbing, enrollment in the district actually began to decline at that point (much of it on base, a trend that continues), causing the district to delay completing the project.

In recent years, however, enrollment has begun to climb again (almost all of it in town), forcing the district to re-evaluate where it is going to put all its new students.

The $34.5 million plan was the answer proposed to the district by a citizen's committee it set up to evaluate district needs last year.

The proposal would raise the monthly taxes on a home assessed (after exemptions) at $100,000 by roughly $8.50.

The highlights of the proposal include:

* Adding an additional classroom wing onto the existing junior high building, creating 26 new classrooms (plus two that would be "shelled in" for future expansion).

* Expanding the audio-visual labs and commons areas.

* Building the "competition gym" required by state standards for a high school. That gym would be able to seat 3,000 people, nearly double the size of the current gym, and could be used for indoor graduation ceremonies (it would be fully air conditioned).

* Creating a 500-seat auditorium that would be used as a daily teaching station for band, choral and theater classes, as well as being available for community events, such as those put on by the arts council. Classroom space for the band and choral programs also would be greatly expanded.

* Provide for expanded vocational-technical facilities that would allow the district to double the number of students it can serve with those programs. Currently, the district is turning away students due to a lack of space for them.

* Rebuild the roof over the 55-year-old existing high school gymnasium, which a recent engineering study done for the district indicated needed to be replaced in the near future. That project alone is $1.5 million and will have to be done whether the bond passes or not.

* Construct a parking lot capable of handling approximately 760 vehicles, plus all curb and gutter work that would be required by the city on the property surrounding the current junior high.

If approved, the district would move all ninth-grade students into the high school, a move district officials believe will help encourage better student performance.

It also would allow the district, to better utilize its teaching resources to provide improved remediation programs for students who have fallen behind, giving them a better chance for successfully graduating.

Seventh- and eighth-grade students would be moved to the existing high school. That would relieve pressure on Hacker Middle School, by moving the seventh-grade students out of that facility.

Hacker is chronically overcrowded. This year, for example, a two-room "temporary" building has been added to the school site, which also includes the district's oldest building, the 1926 high school currently used as the Hacker annex. By taking one grade out, Hacker would be able to handle the fifth- and sixth-grade students that would remain, without being overcrowded.

The elementary schools would remain grades K-4.

The delay in building the Phase II portion of the project was based in the fact the district couldn't justify it in terms of student numbers until now, but the delay has been costly.

"When we built the junior high (Phase I of the high school project), the cost was $85 a square foot," explained school board chairman Jim Alexander. "Today, it's around $215 a square foot. It's not going to get cheaper. And we need to build this for the future, so we're not like Meridian, where they're constantly behind the growth curve and having to pass a bond just about every year for a new building."

With the possible exception of a need for a (much cheaper) elementary school in the future, the district believes the Phase II proposal would satisfy most of the needs of the district for the next 15-20 years, district officials believe. "When we build a building, it lasts," Alexander said, noting that other than the 1998 junior high (Phase I of the high school), the next youngest building in the district is the 43-year-old North Elementary School. All the others are over 50 years of age.

"Is it worth it ($8.50 a month per $100,000 of assessed valuation)? I think so. We're building for the future," he said.

"We hope it's a noble enough cause that people will support it," but, he stressed, "people who are interested in education will have to come out and support it.

"The payoff in the end is that some day you can go to this beautiful facility and enjoy it, or watch a ball game, and know you had something to do with it.

"We're doing it for educational purposes, but a lot of what we're doing can be used by the entire community," he added.

The gym, for example, would be adequate to host multi-day district and even state tournaments, "which would mean a lot to the economy of this area," he said, as literally thousands of people would descend on the community, many staying overnight, spending money in local hotels and restaurants. "Right now, we don't have the facilities to do that," he said.

The gym is designed as a double-decked structure. On the ground floor, the seating could be rolled back, creating two full basketball courts, and the upper level would include two more basketball courts and an indoor running track. That would greatly expand the offerings available for city recreation programs, plus provide enough space to handle a full load of PE classes.

The running track could be used by citizens when the weather was too hot, too cold or too wet for outdoor jogging.

"We've always believed in opening our facilities to the public," Alexander said. "This would not only meet our educational needs, but be a major expansion (of facilities available) to the public."

The auditorium also would be used not only as a teaching station every day, but as a public facility, capable of handling plays, concerts and other community events, as well as school events for the entire district. With seating for 500, it would meet the community's needs for many years, he said, noting the community has been requesting such a facility for a long time.

Expanding the vocational-technical program to meet the needs of its students also is a major priority of the district. Under the plan proposed for the bond election, the existing district maintenance building would be expanded considerably (and maintenance moved to the vo-tech annex at the existing high school).

That would allow the district to double the number of students that could access vo-tech programs.

He noted that with the ever growing list of science and math programs the state and federal government are requiring, additional classroom space is becoming vital.

In breaking down the costs of the bond, the classroom wing expansion (which would be a two-story T-shaped expansion west from the existing classroom wing) would cost about $8 million, the gym would run about $12 million (its high cost was the reason it was left out of the original Phase I plan), the vo-tech building would cost about $3 million, the auditorium about $3 million, $1.5 million for the new room at the existing high school, and $2.5 million for expansion of the band room, choral room, audio-visual center and the commons area. The rest (about $3.5 million) would involve the parking lot, curb and gutter, landscaping and furniture and equipment for the various classrooms and facilities.

On Sept. 6, when voters will cast their ballots to decide the fate of the plan, polls will be open at all schools from noon to 8 p.m., as well as one site on base and one in Pine.