Next month, the New Bloomfield R-III Board of Education must vote on ballot language that could potentially put a $2 million bond issue on the spring ballot to fund the district's facility repairs.
In the meantime, the board will decide what items should be prioritized on the potential facility repairs list.
The board discussed the potential bond issue at its December meeting on Thursday night. At previous school board meetings, Superintendent David Tramel told the board he didn't have a recommendation on whether or not the board should go through with the bond issue this year. He said the district needed to determine how critical facility repairs were to decide what was best financially.
Thursday night, Tramel told the board that after getting feedback on the district's facilities, he recommends putting the bond issue on the spring ballot.
"At this point, I am fully recommending that we pursue this. I think at this point to wait - we've gone both ways on this - waiting isn't going to save us money," Tramel said.
He said the district has heating and air conditioning units that are well beyond their lifespan. He added that the district might be able to wait on the parking lot repairs, but that the lot is in bad shape.
"You are probably going to lose a Volkswagen in one of those pot holes," Tramel said. "It's getting pretty bad."
While the heating and cooling units and parking lot are what Tramel considers the district's top two repair items, he said the board needs to have a list of other repairs ready that could potentially be done with the bond issue.
The district had a mechanical engineer assess its facilities this fall. The engineer, Freddie Malicoat with Malicoat Engineers, P.C. out of Columbia, gave his recommendations to the board last month.
Items on the top of his list for the district were the high school's parking lot and a computerized temperature control (CTC) system. When Malicoat inspected the district's facilities for his assessment, he noted that the district's heating and cooling utility bills were very low. However, to save more money, he recommended the district invest in a CTC system - a system that would be programmed to control all operations related to the heating and air conditioning equipment in the district.
Since the district's utility bills are already low, Tramel told the board Thursday night that he doesn't think a CTC is necessarily a good investment.
"He's right. We don't spend a lot," Tramel said. "I'm not convinced that (we should be) spending $4,000 to $5,000 on that system to regulate that in hopes of saving 15-20 percent on what we already know to be a pretty inexpensive utility bill."
Tramel said Malicoat brought the board good information on the district's facilities. However, Tramel told the board that Malicoat's recommendations are only recommendations and that the board does not have to take his advice.
The school board will have a work session during the first week of school after winter break to narrow down its facility repairs wish list. Then, a subcommittee of the board will meet to get advice from a couple architects or engineers on the board's list.