Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Oakesdale School District will put forth a new school construction bond to the voters April 22.
The ballot follows the failure of a previous one in February.
The new proposal features less remodeling and more new construction, including a new building for the elementary school, library and office area, which would link the high school building to the gymnasium.
Voters will be asked to approve a $7.1 million bond proposal, compared to the $7.16 million proposal which failed to get the required 60 percent approval in the Feb. 11 election.
The revised plan totals $8 million, of which the board will ask voters for the $7.1 million, $3.65 per $1,000 in assessed property value.
“It takes care of everything we need and it’s $2 million less,” said Oakesdale Superintendent Jake Dingman.
The previous total was $10 million with an asking contribution of $7.16 million ($3.90 per $1,000 valuation).
The other factor in the funding change is the reduction of state funds under the state formula when it is applied to the revised plan. The state match under the new state formula dropped from $3 million to $1 million when the state funding formula was applied to the revised plan. Another factor was the increased valuation of the Oakesdale district with the wind turbine farm.
Dingman said another change is a 26-year issue on the bonds instead of the 30-year issue in the last proposal.
The school board voted March 6 to file for the April levy. Ballots will be sent out April 4.
Dingman and the school board came to the decision after gathering input at two public meetings in the past month.
“The redirection that we got from the public was that for the amount of money, people wanted more new construction vs. remodeling,” said school board member Brian Crow.
The new drawings by architecht Lawrence Rose of Design West call for a simpler plan which keeps the old high school building and gym while starting over with the elementary building.
“The high school building is structurally in much better shape than the elementary,” Dingman said.
The new plans have the same number of classrooms as in the February levy, as well as the same square footage. The gym would get a new heating system, bleachers and playing floor.
The previous proposal contained more extensive changes to the gym building including moving the cafeteria to a new complex.
“The tradeoff is we’re not doing as much to the gym,” said Crow. “Before, that building was going to be a total makeover. But we’ll be able to change everything that needed to be changed. I think what we have is a wonderful proposal, it addresses some of the major concerns the public had. My hat’s off to the architect and the public for pointing this out.”
Dingman concurred with Crow’s view.
“I’m happy with this,” he said. “In talking with the staff, we’re all really excited by the simplicity of it. It’s one big hallway, with one main entry, everything centrally located. It’s all there.”
Why wasn’t this proposed before?
“That’s what we said,” Dingman said.
Crow indicated that the February plan grew out of the feedback gained the last time a school construction bond was voted on and failed in 2011.
“The general consensus was that the most cost-efficient (practice) is to remodel what you have, up to a certain point,” he said.
As far as the reason to go ahead with a new ballot following February’s failure, Dingman said the matter calls for it.
“The need is urgent enough and that’s what we want the voters to understand. We have a need to get this done, and this shows we’ve listened to the people,” he said.
Oakesdale and Farmington voters will decide the bond since both areas send students to Oakesdale schools.
Farmington parents have the option to send kids to three different schools: Oakesdale, Tekoa or Garfield-Palouse. Each of the three districts send public school buses to Farmington to pick up students.
Needing a 60 percent margin to pass, the Oakesdale district’s Feb. 11 bond was approved by a wide margin (164-53) in Oakesdale city limits while it fell by a similar margin in Farmington (51-19).
In rural Oakesdale, it passed 64-39, while rural Farmington rejected the bond 19-15.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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