USD 253 Emporia Public Schools went back-to-back Wednesday evening with both their final informational town hall meeting and the Board of Education’s regular meeting.
During the final town hall meeting regarding the upcoming election in September for a facilities improvement bond, opposition to the bond took time to seek answers from district administrators. The district has stated the cost of the bond will be $78 million with a roughly 3 mill increase to the mill levy. President of the Kansas Policy Institute Dave Trabert was in attendance for Wednesday’s town hall and claims the total cost of the bond with interest would actually be $140 million or roughly double the original estimate. In addition, Trabert says the impact of letting the current bond sunset next year — after it was passed in 2000 — and not adding the proposed bond would be a 9-mill decrease instead of the stated 3-mill increase.
Trabert says when it comes to determining these numbers, you have to look no further than the district website.
USD 253 Superintendent Kevin Case says the amount is based on all of the information they have available at this time including an estimated interest rate provided by Piper Jaffray.
The mail-in bond election will be held on September 5th.
During their regular meeting board members approved the 2019-2020 budget for publication. The total budget comes out to just over $33 million and with a mill levy of 53.738 which is a tenth of a mill decrease from last year.
Assistant Superintendent of Bussiness Operations Rob Scheib says there are several positives to this year’s budget, however, due to recent laws requiring the relocation of money into specific funds.
The budget will be officially published on August 3. The School board will hold a hearing during their next regular meeting on August 14, at which time the budget may see final approval.
In other business, the board received a report from the Early Learning Task Force who has been charged with providing recommendations to the board on the future of Maynard Early Childhood Development Center. The task force stated in their report they were “impressed with the creativity and resourcefulness of teachers and administrators to create a vibrant learning space”, however, the task force determined the current space “does not meet the needs of its current population.”
For this reason, the task force made the recommendation for a new facility to be built to address early childhood learning. This is simply a recommendation and the board of education will have the final say on what course of action to take at a later time.
Members of the task force will join the KVOE Morning Show Friday at 8:10 am to discuss their recommendations in more depth.
The USD 253 Board of Education will next meet on August 14 inside the Mary Herbert Education Center.
