Ballot issue 4A asks if School District 51 can take out a bond (loan) for $190 million with a maximum repayment cost of $410 million and use the money to renovate, make additions to existing school buildings and upgrade classroom technology. Plans include doing high-priority repairs like roof replacements, adding fire sprinklers, upgrading classroom technology, making schools more secure and making it easier for disabled kids o access all school facilities.
Many of the local public schools were built in the 1950s-1960s and need maintenance and upgrades to keep them functional, up-to-date and safe into the future.
The bond measure won’t raise taxes because it replaces an existing bond that will be fully paid off on December 1, 2024.
Ballot Issue 4B authorizes the school district to extend the current mill levy override so the District keep getting a tax already in place that was approved in 2017 and keep the $6.5 million it generates annually to continue paying for additional student instruction days, updated instructional materials, teacher training and priority maintenance to extend the life of its buildings. (A “mill levy override” is a voter-approved increase in property taxes that provides a school district with additional funding.)
Arguments for:
The current mill levy override has helped D-51 reach its highest graduation rate in 17 years, helped kids score above literacy skills benchmarks and get 88% of D-51 schools into the two highest academic rating categories.
Like 4A, Ballot Issue 4B will not raise taxes because it extends a mill levy override that’s currently in place. D51 will undergo an annual independent audit to assure it is spending the funds appropriately.
Approval of ballot measures 4A and 4B will help the District continue its recent excellent performance.
Arguments against:
No one filed any comments in opposition to 4A or 4B with the Mesa County Clerk by the constitutional deadline, so no one seems to be arguing against it.
Who’s for it?
Everyone in Mesa County who cares about public schools and making sure Mesa County kids have the updated technology they need and attend school in respectable, comfortable, up-to-date facilities.
Who’s against it?
Apparently no one.
Plus, my daughter in law, who is an elementary school principal in District 51, says we need to vote “Yes” on both measures:
Never mind that D51 has lost 20% of its students…the price remains the same.
Your house needs a new roof but one of your kids graduated and left for college. The number of people living there fell by 20 percent. So you wouldn’t get a new roof?
I agree that some of the overhead will remain the same. However, they are now considering closing some elementary schools so that should reduce some of the cost.
Also, 20% less staff (teachers) should reduce cost as well.
I don’t know enough about how the school system is run here to have an solid opinion on whether they administer the $$$ well.
But I do know, generally, that schools, the city, and the county anywhere will always claim they don’t have enough.
PS. I taught woodworking in a California high school years ago. At the end of the year, we were to make a list of supplies for the coming year. The administer of my program warned me to make my wish list as big as I could so that the funding would not go down. That said to me that
thrift was not the goal.
After that, I had my own cabinet shop where I watched every penny.
This is all to say that perhaps the public and private sectors are vastly different.
Why don’t you save this pseudo outrage and fist-shaking for another hamfisted OpEd, Tad?
Let me get this straight…to you a member of the public blandly pointing something out on a public forum equals pseudo (did you mean faux?) outrage and hamfistedness.
You represent the insanely intolerant left.
Whatever you accuse others of is exactly what you, in fact, are.
Awww…look, a snowflake melting down. But playing the grammar police, yet the very best you could string together is an what I-know-you-are-what-what-am-I insult? Maybe on the schoolyard that taunt had teeth, but now it merely whistles by dentures from dementia-fogged memories of the distant past and upon deaf ears no less. Because its completely laughable to claim being a shop teacher long long ago give you any relevant insight let alone a learned credential today. So please head back to the couch, pop more blood pressure pills, and bask in the warming hateful glow of Faux News til your next pension check comes while shaking your fist at the guvmint in the meantime. Just know you’re neither clever nor some anon freedom warrior. Besides, it’s pretty well established you’re only here to pathetically troll and parrot utter nonsense..just like that whole hysterical Tina Peters armchair legal commentary during her trial and after conviction those unhinged “whistleblower” claims. Clearly that’s how you see yourself too, which is sadly why just you’re another doddering rube of the GOP (Gaslight, Obstruct, and Project) Party. But go on, please tell us more about your tolerance….I wait with bated breath.