Jackson Heights sets public meeting schedule on bond issue

The campaign to get a $5 million bond issue passed to build additions at each of Jackson Heights’ two school buildings moved forward with the setting of five community meetings on the proposed bond, as noted during the USD 335 Board of Education meeting on Monday night.

During the meeting, District Superintendent Jim Howard proposed meeting dates in the district’s five communities to explain why the proposed $5 million bond issue, which has been placed on the Nov. 4 general election ballot, is needed — and why district patrons won’t be paying any additional property taxes to finance the bond if the issue gets voters’ approval.

The public meetings will be held at 7 p.m. on the following Tuesdays: Sept. 30 in Whiting, Oct. 7 in Netawaka, Oct. 14 in Wetmore, Oct. 21 in Soldier and Oct. 28 in Circleville. Locations for the community meetings have yet to be finalized, district officials noted.

As proposed, the building additions are being planned to accommodate growth in the district due in large part to the addition of more than 100 new students from the Wetmore area in recent years after the Wetmore Attendance Center was ordered closed by the Prairie Hills USD 113 Board of Education. The district’s boundaries have also grown due to the recent addition of land in the Wetmore area.

“Our mills haven’t gone up in three years, and our enrollment’s gone up. We have almost $2 million more in revenue,” Howard said. “Most of that money’s coming from the state.”

An addition at the middle and high school will include six new classrooms, while an elementary addition will include two new classrooms and a music room. The project also includes a covered walkway to connect the two school buildings.

Howard had previously stated that if the bond issue is approved by district voters, the mill rate associated with the bond — estimated at five to 5.8 mills — would be offset by a reduction in the district’s capital outlay levy to accommodate the mill rate associated with the bond. He also said that “good stewardship” of district funds enabled the district to pay off the 2008 bond issue for a middle and high school addition a few years early.

Some board members recalled public hearings on the 2008 bond — $3 million to finance construction of the 10-classroom addition at the middle and high school, approved by voters — and agreed to attend some or all of the public information meetings.

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