news / the standard / feb. 2020 | 5
basics of the bond District passes 2020 bond initiative
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esidents within the Blue Valley boundaries received a mail ballot to vote on the 2020 bond, a proposal to better the district. Deputy superintendent Mike Slagle has dealt with the bond since square one. “Over the past two years, I’ve worked a process with our Board of Education and our community to come up with a set of bond projects that are necessary for the future of our kids and staff here in the Blue Valley School District,” Slagle said. A bond is an elected issue in which a school district can ask the residents within it for money. Districts can then use this money for projects they have previously spelled out for the patrons. Deputy superintendent and incoming superintendent Tonya Merrigan said the bond is similar to a line of credit. “It’s a line of credit very similar to when you’re doing improvements to your home, and you have to go to a bank and say that you need money to make improvements, then you draw it down as you need it,” Merrigan said. Social studies teacher Mike Hardin said the bond can be explained as a program in which schools are able to ask the public for money. However, in this case, this election will be a no tax rate increase election. This means that the amount of money paid in taxes will not increase to
To all Blue Valley Recipients
support this bond. “When you think of a school bonding initiative, what a school district is usually doing is asking for either an increase or a renewal of a current property tax rate on property in order to fund new improvements or ongoing operations,” Hardin said. The bond has three phases: reimagine, reinvest and reinforce. With these three phases, the district will be able to keep up with the constant upkeep necessary to better the district as a whole. The first phase is reimagine. “Education has changed a lot in 30 years, and yet our buildings look exactly the same,” Merrigan said. “So we need to think about how do we reimagine the spaces that we have.” The basis of the reimagine piece is utilizing the spaces the district already has. While reinvesting might seem similar to reimagining, there is a profound difference. “We have 37 facilities across the district,” Slagle said “They range in age, but really, we have some of our district buildings in the northern part of the district that are approaching 30 years old, 35 years old. So those need constant update, upkeep, constant reinvestment to make sure that they are up to date for our kids.” The third and final phase of this bond is reinforce.
