Good response noted at Jackson Heights bond issue meetings

As the Nov. 4 general election approaches and Jackson Heights district patrons decide on whether to approve a $5 million bond issue for the construction of building additions at the district’s two school buildings, the district has been hosting public meetings on the bond issue and getting some good input from the public.

That’s according to USD 335 District Superintendent Jim Howard, who said that the meetings have been “largely positive and constructive.” The last public meetings is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28 at Circleville Christian Church and is open to the public.

“While there is understandable frustration in the community about rising property assessments and taxes in general, the feedback we've received has been predominantly positive,” Howard said. “The fact that our mill rate is projected to remain flat has been a key point of reassurance. The dialogue has been excellent, with patrons asking thoughtful, substantive questions.”

Public meetings were slated to answer questions from district patrons after the USD 335 Board of Education unanimously agreed to put the bond issue to a public vote in November.

The bond issue has been proposed to enable the district to build additions to both the elementary school building and the middle and high school building to accommodate growth in the district due to the addition of more than 100 new students from the Wetmore area. The district’s boundaries have also expanded to include the Wetmore area as well.

If approved, the bond issue will be used to finance construction of a middle and high school addition with six new classrooms for middle school students and an elementary school addition that would include a music room and two new classrooms.

Howard said that if the bond issue is approved, the district will offset the bond’s mill rate, estimated at five to 5.8 mills, by reducing the district’s capital outlay mill rate by a corresponding amount and shifting the use of those mills already in place to the bond issue. The net result, he said, is no tax increase to accommodate the bond issue.

Five meetings were scheduled on Tuesday evenings in the run-up to the election, with one meeting scheduled for each of the communities — Circleville, Netawaka, Soldier, Wetmore and Whiting — served by the district.

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