School board examining options for high school renovation project separate from a new auditorium

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Community School Board considered new options for funding high school infrastructure upgrades at a workshop meeting on Tuesday, March 7.

Last fall, the board initiated a plan to bond for a $27 million renovation project to the high school. Along with the construction of a new auditorium for the school district, the plan included major renovations to the building’s interior along with updates to the school’s heating, plumbing, and electrical work.

However, the bond referendum did not move forward as the district could not collect enough signatures on a petition to put it on the ballot for the March election.

In the wake of the failed attempt at initiating a bond measure, Director of Operations Jerry Mitchell developed what he called a modest proposal to demonstrate an alternative option to do just the most needed upgrades to the high school, although he admitted he didn’t think his plan was probable.

The priorities for this plan focus on improvements to the high school’s plumbing and electrical work along with the Installation of a new HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system for the building.

If unable to bond for the project, the district would have to use its existing revenue and cash reserves to pay for the renovations.

The bulk of the district’s revenue for facility projects comes from the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) state sales tax and the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL), both of which are dedicated taxes specifically designed to fund a school’s infrastructure needs, such as buildings, buses, and technology. For Charles City, this brings in roughly $2.8 million per year and pays for everything from carpets to light fixtures across the district.

With a goal in mind of completing the most baseline goals for the infrastructure upgrades, Mitchell worked with Estes Construction to develop a plan on how it could be done.

Rather than doing everything all at once, the high school building upgrades would be done in phases over six years, starting with the 500 circle in year one, the 600 circle in year two, the fine arts circle and administrative crossroads in year three, the cafeteria in year four, gymnasium in year five, and finally the shop classrooms in year six.

The plumbing and electrical upgrades would cost a projected total of $4.4 million over the six years while the HVAC installation would cost $7.9 million. If done together, the total project would cost roughly $10.2 million.

Notes from Estes pointed out that this plan would include minimal asbestos abatements, only around the immediate work area, and does not address any exterior or interior finishing work. The plan would also not include any of the classroom redesigns or security upgrades that were initially considered.

“It would be exactly the same except for the duct work exposed on the walls,” said Mitchell.

It was also noted that while spreading the work out across six years would lower the up-front cost for each year, remobilizing construction teams every year for six years adds significant fees and administrative costs to the total project.

“They’d have to come back instead of doing it all at once,” said Mitchell. “We’re going to spend a lot more money than if we did it all at once.”

One benefit of spreading the project across multiple years is that it would minimize classroom disruption. If the district only does the HVAC project, the work in each area of the building could be done over the summer. To do both the HVAC installation and the plumbing/electric upgrades the project would either have to extend into the school year for six years or be done one at a time over 12 years.

In either case, while the proposal would be technically achievable utilizing existing revenues, it would come at a significant practical cost.

Since 2016, a large portion of the district’s dedicated facilities revenue has gone toward paying for the new middle school building. Rather than bond for the construction of a new building, the district borrowed money against its future PPEL revenue and will be paying it off with roughly $1.1 million per year through 2029.

After loan payments, annual leases, and other regular expenses, Mitchell has around $800,000 a year to dedicate to projects, with the leftover going into the district’s cash reserve. The district’s cash balance is generally used for unexpected expenses and currently sits just above the recommended $1.5 million.

With each phase of the combined project costing an average of $1.7 million per year, the six-year plan would cost more than the district has available in annual funds or reserves.

Done separately, back-to-back, the HVAC installation alone would cost an average of $1.3 million per year, which would still require a significant portion of the district’s cash reserves.

“The only way you could do this is to cut into the reserves,” said Mitchell.

Even just the sewer and electric portion of the project, which is the least expensive and highest priority of the proposal, would average out to $745,000 per year, requiring the bulk of the district’s facilities budget for six years. This would leave the district unable to support major or minor projects in any of the district’s buildings.

“It could be up to 12 years before I’d have any money to do anything in the rest of the district,” said Mitchell.

Faced with such overwhelming drawbacks, the informal consensus of the board seemed to be that paying for even the minimum priorities of the high school renovation through regular revenues would be untenable. At best, the district would have to wait until the middle school building is paid off, pushing the project out until at least 2030.

To that end, the board discussed other options.

While the previous bond referendum asked for $27 millions for the combined high school renovations and new auditorium, the board suggested dividing the question into two parts.

“It is possible to split it into two questions,” said Superintendent Dr. Anne Lundquist.

Splitting the project into two parts, the total high school renovation project, which would include both the infrastructure upgrades and a complete modernization of the interior, could be done for approximately $18 million. The new auditorium would cost approximately $9 million. This would allow voters to decide if they want to support the renovations, the auditorium, or both.

The school will be collecting more information about how the project would go depending on each scenario and the board plans to revisit the discussion on making another attempt at a bond referendum for their meeting in April.