Wednesday, April 07, 1999
Talawanda considers tax, bond issue
BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
OXFORD — Talawanda school voters might be asked to decide this fall on a $34 million bond issue and a 0.75 percent income tax to pay for improvements in educational programs and facilities — a double hit that one board member admits will be tough to pass.
“This is at least a five-year plan for facilities and programs,” Talawanda Superintendent Susan Cobb said. Costs for both are still being calculated.
The school board is considering a 6-mill bond issue to make building improvements and pay for construction of a high school for 1,200 students. The school would be designed so additions could accommodate up to 1,500.
Preliminary figures put the cost for a 180,000-square-foot high school at about $25.1 million, said Jim Boots of Skillman Corp., an Indianapolis-based company hired to help put together the bond issue plan.
Another $4.7 million would be used to convert the existing high school into an elementary school for kindergarten through fifth grade, and for district administrative offices. About $1.2 million would be spent at Kramer Elementary to enlarge the gymnasium and add air conditioning. Maud Marshall also would get air conditioning and a gym.
Each of those buildings would then house children in kindergarten through fifth grade. Stewart Elementary would be closed and new attendance boundaries would have to be set for each of the three elementary schools.
Board members Monday also told Mr. Boots to put into the plans a technology package for Kramer and Maud Marshall that includes upgrading electrical systems that he estimated would cost $3 per square foot at each building. A six-classroom addition to Talawanda Middle School also would be included.
“I'm going to work to get a middle school project in here,” board member Bob Sherman said. “The dollars are going to be quite tight. This is going to be hard to pass under any conditions.”
Board member Karen Maitland Schilling said she doubted the package would pass if it did not include building improvements at every school. Improvements to the middle school were included in Ms. Cobb's February recommendation that called for $37 million in improvements. They were removed to keep costs no greater than $34 million, the district's debt limit under Ohio law.
Besides the bond issue, the board wants to ask voters to approve a 0.75 percent income tax. It would pay for the addition of up to 43.5 staff members, bring teacher salaries to the midrange of those in Butler County, and keep the district solvent through June 2002 or 2003.
District Treasurer James Rowan estimated a 0.75 percent income tax would cost a family with an income of $50,000 an additional $375 annually. A 6-mill bond issue would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $184 a year.
The school board has until mid-August to put the issue on the November ballot, but Mr. Rowan said the goal is to have everything in place no later than the end of July.
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