Charles City School Board sets $30M targeted bond amount

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Community School Board plans to pursue a $30 million bond referendum to fund Phase 1 of its proposed renovation of the high school building.

During the board’s regular meeting on Monday, June 30, members met with Tim Oswald, a managing director of public finance with Piper Sandler, who walked them through the details of the general obligation bonding process, from when the bonds could be sold to which fiscal years would be affected by the tax levy, and how the district paying down the Middle School in 2031 would impact the payment schedule.

With an estimated levy of 2.7%, Oswald also discussed how the state’s property tax exemptions and rollbacks apply to residential, commercial and agricultural property owners.

A $150,000 residential property with a homestead credit and a senior exemption would see an additional annual tax of $161.46, while agricultural property would see an additional tax of between $3.19 and $4.19 per acre.

Using some of his own agricultural property as an example, Board President Bruce Koebrick calculated that the bond levy would cost approximately $280 annually.

Under this plan, the levy would pay for Phase 1 of the project, leaving the eventual Phase 2 to be paid with revenue from the district’s share of the the state one-cent sales tax.

“SAVE funding would pay for Phase 2. No referendum required,” said Oswald.

Following the presentation from Oswald, the board heard from FEH Design’s Matthew Basye about how to pare the plan’s initial cost estimate of $34.2 million down to the district’s $30 million bond capacity.

“We’re trying to check off has many boxes as we can to come down,” said Basye.

By scaling back on some aspects of the renovation, or moving them to Phase 2, Basye said he was confident that a viable proposal could be developed for a vote in November and emphasized the importance of getting started sooner rather than later.

“Being able to do all this work faster is a huge advantage,” said Basye.

In other business, the board heard end-of-year progress updates from the administrators of each school building.

Washington Elementary Principal Joe Carney delivered his presentation via pre-recorded video, showing the early elementary school is working on improving literacy with intervention groups that focus on one-on-one instruction.

“We really have tried to maximize the number of adults who are available to support those intervention groups because we really want those groups to be as small as possible,” said Carney.

Likewise in math, the school is working on improving the percentage of students showing growth by focusing on grade appropriate fundamentals.

Lincoln Elementary Principal Chealsey Moen celebrated hitting the goal of seeing a 10% improvement in math proficiency along with a 27% decrease in referrals for student behavior.

“Overall we had a pretty great year,” said Moen.

Middle School Principal Joe Taylor reported that the school doubled its science goal of 10% improvement and was also pleased to note that his building saw 100% staff retention for next year.

“In general, it was a really great year,” said Taylor.

Finally, from the high school, Principal Levi Miller reported that 92% of second semester students passed all of their classes this year. Miller has been utilizing incentive programs that reward students for good behavior and reported that participation in assessment tests has risen in all areas.