“The Elementary roof is 20 years old and out of warranty and it needs to be fixed and replaced,” said Gananda School Superintendent Shawn Van Scoy.
Under direction of a Facility Advisory Committee, the roof and other needed repairs and building maintenance projects were outlined and presented to the School Board back in September. It was the Committee’s job to prioritize projects to be completed, depending on the costs of the primary needs of the District.
Now, the project must be sold to the taxpayers and Van Scoy has pulled out all the stops to ensure the voters know the how and whys of the project. The Committee objectives were to “pave the road to 2020” to ensure the District provides current and future students the appropriate and adequate facilities.
Van Scoy said the Board took a property tax neutral policy in approaching the Capital Project, meaning a no property tax increase if the measure is approved. So, how can the District achieve the no-tax-increase stand. By using state building aid payments. (see chart #1) cc
When all the reserves set aside, along with a decrease in past debt-service, the actual cost to local taxpayers will $2,505,613.
Priority items in the Project include the roof, exterior wall repair and preservation and air movement within the pool area. Van Scoy stressed if the priority items come in below bid estimates, the remainder of the monies would be used for alternative projects.
Upon approval by the voters, the roof project is slated for the Summer of 2015, with the rest of the projects following.