2020 BVSD Bond

Aprimary goal for the Blue Valley School District (BVSD) is to reimagine learning. The district believes that with their recently approved bond of $186 million, they can help accomplish this goal. The voting for the three-year bond began on Jan. 8 and continued through Jan. 28. After the twenty-day mail-in voting window closed, the BVSD community endorsed the bond election 73.8 percent to 26.2 percent.

The BVSD most recently passed bonds in 2005 and 2012. This funding helped maintain the school district for over a decade, however, after the prolongment of the 2012 bond, the BVSD decided to appeal to their residents for more money.

Deputy Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan said that the BVSD worked for years to decide what the money would fund and what schools needed the most. They ultimately decided on a variety of district-wide projects, including new locks on every classroom door and flooring replacements.

“We’ve been working on this for several years identifying the different things that every building across the district might need,” Merrigan said. “We then have to continue to whittle that down to the work that we can get done in a three-year period.”

At BV West specifically, the bond will fund a number of different projects that will benefit sports teams, the performing arts department and other activities. Assistant principal Bryan Brutto said that the bond will support a number of improvements from resurfacing the tennis courts to developing a Career and Technical Education (CTE) focus.

“What you will probably see in this district, as a patron, is that we are continuing to look at how we reimagine what our district is doing when it comes to education,” Brutto said. “In this world, we can’t hang our hat on just one thing. What else is out there when it comes to Career and Technical Education pieces? I’ve heard [we are developing an education in] building trades or the auto technical field. I think we’ve got some students here that would enjoy that [path].”

Students also feel confident and hopeful about the benefits of the upcoming improvements. Senior Kess Weiser said she is especially grateful for the increased security the bond will fund, such as the updated doors and locks.

“Coming from Connecticut, I know that new doors and new locks seem like a hassle, but [these measures] are proven to be safer for students,” Weiser said. “There hasn’t been a school shooting in Connecticut since Sandy Hook and since the implementation of these new security measures.”

Weiser, like Brutto, believes that these measures are important to the development and improvement of the BVSD. The district and community are constantly changing and the BVSD believes that this funding helps complete the necessary updates.

Without the passing of this bond, the district worried that some essential projects would be disregarded. To keep up with the growth of the BVSD, especially following the suburban sprawl of the last 15 to 20 years, Brutto said the schools need funding. The older high schools like Blue Valley, Blue Valley North and Blue Valley Northwest, for example, gained many more students in the years after they initially opened and now need improvements, like new gyms, to accommodate more students.

Brutto believes that, depending on the age of the school, it might require more or less funding for expansion and renovation.

In addition, both Brutto and Merrigan said that the bond would not increase taxes. The last bond passed in 2012 amounted to $271 million. Residents are currently pay taxes for this previous bond so the passing of the 2020 bond still requires people to pay taxes for the funding but not at an increased cost from the 2012 funding.

Ultimately, the three goals of the bond are to reinvest, reinforce and reimagine the BVSD to provide a better learning environment for its students. Hannah Cole editor-in-chief Blue Valley community endorses a new bond in hopes of improving schools