Voters face decisions for several area schools

Voters on Tuesday will decide whether to approve propositions placed on the election ballot by the Nell Holcomb, Cape Girardeau and Advance school districts.

Proposition 2, proposed by the Nell Holcomb School District, would eliminate the mandated Proposition C rollback. Enacted in 1982, Proposition C is a 1-cent, statewide sales tax for education with a corresponding property tax reduction for school districts.

The Cape Girardeau School District is asking voters to approve a $20 million bond issue -- Proposition 1 -- that would pay for renovations across the district and go toward more specific projects at Central Junior High School and the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center.

Voters in the Advance School District will decide a $1.9 million bond issue -- Proposition Keep Advance Safe -- that would provide funding to build a dual-purpose storm shelter.

Nell Holcomb

The Nell Holcomb School District hosted town-hall meetings over the past two months in an effort to educate voters about the Proposition C rollback waiver.

Revenue generated by Proposition C was intended to roll back, or reduce, property taxes by an amount equal to one-half the amount each school district receives via the sales tax revenue at the state level.

The amount of rollback on average for the past 10 years at Nell Holcomb has been about 10 percent of the total tax, which equals $120,000 to $150,000, depending on the year, said superintendent Darryl Pannier.

"I think the stressing point for us is that this is money that we've been able to give back to taxpayers all these years, and now it's to the point where we need to keep it within the district," Pannier said Friday.

With the passage of Proposition 2, the district's tax rate would be raised to $3.60 per $100 of assessed valuation. The current rate is $3.2581.

For the owner of a $150,000 home, the 35-cent levy increase per $100 of assessed valuation would equate to an annual increase of $99.75 in residential property taxes, according to the district.

"If it doesn't pass, we're going to have to make some more major decisions along the way in programs and services," Pannier said.

Over the past several years, the district has made cuts to supplies. But if the measure fails, officials say they will have to consider cutting programs and personnel.

"Hugely, there are hundreds of reasons why this should pass, and those hundreds of reasons have names," Pannier said of students. "We're making cuts like everybody else, and whether directly or indirectly, it's going to affect students."

Cape Girardeau

The Cape Girardeau School Board in January approved placing Proposition 1 on the ballot.

The measure does not include a change in the current tax rate, officials said, and if the measure fails, the rate would not change.

However, if the proposal is approved -- which would require a four-sevenths supermajority vote -- the district's existing debt would be extended.

The current debt is scheduled to be paid off by 2030, and the $20 million proposal would extend the debt an additional five years, according to the district.

The district's overall rate is $4.1567 per $100 of assessed value and of that, 68 cents is for debt service.

The proposal would pay for upgrades to the junior high building at 205 Caruthers Ave., including improved safety and security, changing grade levels in ramps and adding rails to increase accessibility for those with disabilities.

The measure looks at the location of administrative offices, which would be moved to the junior high's old gymnasium that sits in the middle of the building.

The project also would house other student services, science labs in the basement -- that would double as a storm shelter -- and a new practice gymnasium. The cost is estimated at about $9.8 million.

A Career and Technology Center expansion, priced at $5.9 million, would allow health-care services and more to be provided at the center, 1080 S. Silver Springs Road.

It also would offer more space for the Cape College Center, a partnership of Mineral Area College, Southeast Missouri State University and Three Rivers College, which is at the facility, officials said.

Stacy Kinder, a former school board member, has been leading a campaign to encourage people to vote in favor of the proposal.

"One thing I've been trying to stress lately is the connection between the district's service fund and the operating fund," she said. "Those are separate funds and the money doesn't flow between them. But if we get a bond issue passed, that money and that debt service fund can be used strictly for facilities. That does free up money in the operating fund to focus more on classroom programming, salaries, benefits, etc."

All the projects included in the proposal are on the district's website at capetigers.com/bond and are the second phase of a facility plan developed in 2008 and 2009.

The first phase, which included projects such as replacing Franklin Elementary School, was addressed with a $40 million bond issue passed in 2010.

Advance

Last April, Gov. Jay Nixon announced the Advance School District would receive a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to build a safe room, with about $1 million in federal funds provided and a required local district match of $441,934.

The grant also requires the shelter to serve a second purpose. Because the district holds elementary and high-school physical-education courses in the high school gym at the same time, officials decided the new space should double as physical education classrooms and a gymnasium. It also would be used for band and choir performances.

The 9,700-square-foot shelter would withstand 250 mph winds and would be open to the community, with a capacity of about 1,700 people.

The $1.9 million bond issue would cover the matching portion, as well as a 3,000-square-foot addition to the shelter; additional lighting; goals, nets, bleachers, scoreboards and flooring; two hallways connecting the shelter to the high school and gym; air conditioning; and two classrooms.

Any funds remaining from the bond issue would be used to replace the high school's roof, which is aging and leaking, officials said.

The debt would require a 17-cent increase in the debt-service levy, raising it from 37 cents to 54 cents per $100 of assessed valuation of real and personal property.

That would equate to an increase of about $32 a year for the owner of a $100,000 house, officials said.

If the district can't raise matching funds through Proposition Keep Advance Safe, the grant will become unavailable.

Superintendent Stan Seiler on Friday said new building codes for schools require a safe room be constructed that could hold all the people who are in the building. The shelter, he said, would not be open to the public.

"In our case, we have the federal government that's going to contribute about a million (dollars) to our safe room," Seiler said. "And if we don't approve it now, the chances are when and if we add on to the school in the future, then we'll have to construct one with us paying 100 percent."

Seiler said a safe room is something the district hopes it won't have to use.

"But if we have a tornado bear down on us, we can keep our whole community safe," he said. "That's what it's all about."

klamb@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

6547 State Highway 177, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

301 N. Clark St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

School Street, Advance, Mo.