BCSD discusses bond, M&O and contingency plan

BONNERS FERRY — The Boundary County School Board voted to run both a school bond to rebuild Valley View Elementary and the two-year $2.4 million supplemental levy. Both measures will go before voters at the Nov. 5 general election.

No members of the public attended the meeting on Monday, June 17. The board meet to discuss the bond and levy June 10 in a special meeting, but due to the lack of patron turn out no decision was made. 

School bonds are typically collected for 20 years and fund buildings and remodeling projects. Levies pay for education courses, co-and-extracurricular activities, teachers and transportation. 

Zone 2 Trustee Mary Fioravanti said the community expects the Valley View bond in November, since the district has run it twice already and has been adamant that the school needs to be rebuilt. At first she suggested the bond be run in November and the levy in May. 

She said the district has talked about needing the bond for three years, and if the bond isn’t run in November, it may look to the community that the bond isn’t an emergency. 

Zone 3 Trustee Mike Ferguson was concerned with only running the levy in May as it would be the district's one and only chance to run the levy. 

The current supplemental levy, also known as a maintenance and operations levy, expires June 2025. Teachers and employees receive their contracts in late May to early June. If the levy is not passed before contracts, then staff positions and courses paid for by the levy will not be funded the following school year. 

“We’ve got to give ourselves two chances to run the levy,” Ferguson said. 

This decision is on the heels of Bonner County voters rejecting  a $4.68 million West Bonner County School District supplemental levy in May. WBCSD has since announced the one-year closure of Priest River Junior High School and is moving extracurricular activities to a pay-to-play system. BCSD trustees are concerned that the Boundary County school district will have to make similar cuts should the levy not pass.  

Fellow trustees voiced concerns of running both the bond and the levy in November, as BCSD has never passed a bond in the general election. 

“My recommendation is that we need two chances to run the M&O,” BCSD Superintendent Jan Bayer said. 

“The M&O is our [the district's] bread and butter,” Bayer said. “People will not believe what this district will look like if we do not pass an M&O. That’s what keeps me up at night.”

“I firmly believe, if the M&O [fails] what’s ever on there, the board is going to have to stand firm and cut,” Bayer said. “Right now the supplemental pays 100% of our extra-co-curriculars, six teaching positions and more. All those things we’d have to stand by.”

Zone 5 Trustee Teresa Rae highlighted WBCSD, noting that middle schoolers will be moved to the high school, as they are consolidating facilities. 

She added that the district will have to be specific on what will be cut. 

Bayer said a place to start is the part-time athletic director , four teachers at the middle school, since the school has four more teachers than the bare minimum. She added that electives would be cut at the middle school. 

“My intuition tells me that the bond should run this November, for its best chance for passing,” Fioravanti said. 

Zone 4 Trustee Candice Kelly said running both the M&O and bond at the same time could put the M&O at risk. 

Rae said the district can still run the levy in May, and by having both items on the ballot in November, the district is showing all its cards to the taxpayers. 

By running the bond in November, the district has to turn in bond language by Sept. 6. 

Bayer said the best chance for the Valley View bond to pass is to remove the second gym from the plans. This will allow the bond cost to drop. She added that the facility committee was adamant that the district and community needed a second gym at VVE for sport practices and community rental space. 

Rae said in future the board could look at crowd funding for a second gym, much like the grandstands at Mendenhall Stadium. 

BCSD is expected to receive $5.3 million from the state for facility maintenance. The district has opted to receive the funding in a lump sum, rather than over a 10 year period. The funding is supposed to be allocated to a school bond, however, BCSD is not allowed to mention this funding in the bond languages, which voters see at the polls. By removing the second gym from the plans, the bond could run around $17 million. 

Bayer said by removing the gym, the bond would drop $2 million and by adding the $5.3 million in funding to down pay the bond, the taxpayers would be paying around $10 million for a new Valley View, but the bond language would say the school costs $17 million. 

Bayer suggested that the board put the $5.3 million in a savings account for a year to gain interest. Due to new legislation and lottery funding being moved into this new facility maintenance, the district will not have money to do summer maintenance.

Annually, $110,000 of lottery money was used for summer maintenance on schools and to pay maintenance staff. By using interest gained on the $5.3 million, BCSD will have the funds for summer maintenance after a year. 

The first bond payment isn’t due for a year. 

Zone 1 Trustee Chairman Ron MacDonald said the Valley View bond can’t keep being kicked down the road, as Mt. Hall Elementary, the school he represents, is equally as old and needs a new roof. He was uncertain that Mt. Hall could function another 20 years with being rebuilt. 

He said this new bond will not include repairs to other schools, rather it will only be for Valley View. He said in the past the bond included repairs at other schools, so everyone in the district would be benefiting from the bond, and not just Valley View families. 

In the past the board has tried to include repairs to outline schools, Kelly said. This was a way to market the bond to those areas, since the bond always passes in the Valley View precincts. 

However the district has put money into Mt. Hall and Naples for repairs, in the past two years, due to ESSER funds. 

It takes 51% of “yes” votes to pass a supplemental levy, or M&O. It takes 66 2/3% of a favor for a bond to pass. 

At the July 22 board meeting the board will line out what programs and positions will be cut if the M&O does not pass. Meetings are now at the Boundary County Middle School library at 6 p.m.