Mt. Pleasant School Board Sends $39.6 M Bond to Voters
Mount Pleasant School District officials are hoping the third time is the charm.
The board of education last Wednesday unanimously approved sending a $39.6 million capital projects bond to district voters on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Voters overwhelmingly defeated a single $55.8 million bond in November 2014 and a three-proposition referendum in March 2015 totaling more than $42.5 million aimed primarily to upgrade infrastructure at Westlake Middle School and Westlake High School.
The latest proposal would focus on the most critical of those proposals along with some projects at the elementary schools. The projects were recommended in the district’s 2015 Buildings Condition Survey.
If the bond is approved, a district taxpayer who owns a home with a $500,000 market value would pay an additional $319 a year (from 2020 to 2025) if enrolled in the Senior STAR property tax program and $345 annually for the regular STAR program. For those not enrolled in either STAR program, it would cost up to an additional $367 a year.
Charles Bastian, president of the municipal finance firm Bernard P. Donegan, Inc.which is working with the district on the proposed bond, told trustees his company was making several assumptions in determining how much more property owners would pay. One assumption is that the district would be charged a 5 percent interest rate.
Bastian said he believed about one-third of the bond would be reimbursed through state aid. Residents would begin paying for it in 2018.
“We’ll try to ease into it,” Bastian said.
Trustee Colleen Scaglione Neglia suggested that the district set up a computer program that would allow residents to see how much more they would pay in taxes based on their property assessment.
However, board Vice President Thomas McCabe said there could be no reliable estimate because of a set of variables that include an anticipated influx of new homes. About 100 additional homes are scheduled to be completed over the next three years within the district, said Trustee John Piazza.
Director of Business Administration Andrew Lennon said the only certainty thus far is that the district would ask voters to borrow up to $39.6 million.
If voters approved the referendum, the district would require state Education Department (SED) approval on the building plans and specifications before bidding. For the more straightforward items, such as roof replacements, the district could be able to bid and award construction contracts as early as next May, Lennon said. More complex items like mechanical systems would take longer for design and SED review and would be bid at a later date, he said.
Construction would begin next summer, with most of the work would be completed during summer recesses. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2020.
Voting will take place on Oct. 18 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Westlake High School.
