By NICK BUDD
Hays Post

After a brief discussion Monday night, the Hays USD 489 school board decided unanimously to advance a $100 million bond issue for facility improvements. If the board continues the process, the bond issue election is scheduled for November 2015.

“This is not your vote to pursue a bond issue,” Superintendent Dean Katt told board members. “I’m just asking the board to proceed with the process of looking at the future bond issue.”

Katt said the next process will be setting up committees, providing education to the community on facility needs. He noted the $100 million price tag as a “starting mark.”

All five board members agreed the board will have to dig deeper into the recommendations and prioritize what needs to be done. The recommendations offered earlier this year by the Facility Needs Committee did include some school-specific priorities.

“(This school district) needs a lot,” said board member Josh Waddell. “I think we almost need to go back to the most important things that we have to get done in this school district because I don’t think all of the recommendations are on an ‘even-steven’ basis. I think there definitely are some issues that are going to take precedence over others.”

Board member Greg Schwartz also added that if the bond issue does not pass, the board will have to decide which facility needs take precedence over other items currently in the budget, such as technology and transportation.

Waddell also questioned the selection of the architects, noting that most of the other district initiatives were bid out, but the facility needs architecture was not.

The board plans on discussing the various details over the next couple of months in board meetings and retreats.