By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
During Monday night’s Hays USD 489 Board of Education meeting, the board decided to take no action on a resolution that would have allowed for an April bond election after a lengthy discussion on the scope of the bond and the best way to pay for it.
The board agreed a sales tax would make the $94 million bond more palatable to Hays residents, but the tradeoff would be an election that could be pushed back until June — and only if the Hays City Commission would agree to a special election.
After the city commission balked at the idea of putting a sales tax question on the ballot, the board would need to collect 10 percent of registered voters in order for the election to be an option. Even then, the city commission could force the measure to be put on a general election ballot.
The next general election is in November.
Board members said they feared that collecting the required signatures would take more than 30 days, making an April or May election impossible.
“I’m hearing 30 days may be overly optimistic,” said board member Luke Oborny.
But even with the timeline in question, the board questioned whether an bond at this time would even be feasible, based on feedback received from the community.
Board President Lance Bickle asked the board to discus the overall project during the meeting before they were to vote on the resolution, prompting a lively debate of the merits of the overall project.
“We’re looking at a potential loss of jobs,” said Josh Waddell, board member, in light of the precipitous drop in oil prices. “Three or four months ago, the climate was different.”
Further, without the sales tax to support the bond, several members questioned if it could pass as it has been planned.
“I would ask we look at redefining our objectives,” said Sarah Rankin, board member. “I would ask we redefine the scope to redefine the needs.”
Some of the necessities she cited were storm shelters, overcrowding at the elementary schools and deferred maintenance across the district, suggesting Hays taxpayers might not support expansion until students are forced to occupy classroom trailers to support the student load.
Deferred maintenance, however, is seen as a necessity by the board.
“I don’t think there is any way we leave deferred maintenance out of this,” Bickle said.
“It’s not exciting,” Rankin said, “but it is needed.”
Even taking out expansion efforts, including new multipurpose rooms, Oborny pointed out the bond would still be around $64 million.
Throughout the discussion, several board members said adjusting the scope of the bond, or trying to pass as is would be a difficult decision that would need to be made, but a smaller bond may have a better chance of succeeding.
Parsing out the bond, however, would create another set of problems that the board has tried to avoid during the entire process.
By the time the 25-year bond ended, said Waddell, it would be time to fix what was just fixed.
After about an hour of discussion, it was clear the resolution to set the election in motion for April was not viable.
“It’s clear to me we are not ready to pass a resolution tonight,” said board member Mandy Fox.
The board will now begin the process of collecting signatures in order to put a sales tax election forward. In the meantime, the $94 bond education sessions will begin throughout Hays soon.