By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The first of several town hall meetings presenting the public with information about an upcoming bond election brought a small crowd Thursday night at O’Loughlin Elementary School.
After an hour-long presentation, Superintendent Dean Katt fielded a handful of questions, centering mostly on how the district will continue informing the public about the bond.
“We have volunteer committees. We just starting setting those up,” Katt said, noting the administration and the Board of Education cannot advocate for the bond – only provide information. “We can give facts and figures. We’ll have a mailer that we just finished that we’ll mail out to everybody that’s in USD 489.”
“But that’s where the volunteer committees become critical, that’s why we’re trying to form those committees,” said Sarah Rankin, board member. “We’ve heard that successful bond campaigns take as many as 100 active volunteers to get the word out and sell this.”
She encouraged people at the meeting to have anyone interested – or if they knew anyone interested – to volunteer.
“We don’t have anywhere near enough volunteers yet, but we have a very good group started,” Katt said.
In an effort to continue attracting volunteers, another meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the USD 489 board office. But getting volunteers is only the first step — fundraising will also be vital if the bond is to pass.
As district funds cannot be used to advocate for the bond, the fundraising will be required to foot the bill for what Katt is calling the “vote yes” campaign.
The USD 489 Foundation will fund advertising and marketing efforts.
Even with a properly funded volunteer effort, Katt warned getting the bond to pass could still be a struggle.
“I think it’s always difficult to pass a bond, especially in this day and age. It gets harder all the time,” he said.
The administration believes the difficulty getting the bond passed, however, is a challenge that cannot wait.
“Ninty-four million seems like a lot of money, and it is a lot of money, but the facilities needs committee said these are not wants, these are needs. It’s necessary, it’s time, it’s the things we need to do to put our district in the position to move forward in the next 25 to 30 years,” said Mark Hauptman, assistant superintendent for special services.
He also informed meeting attendees how they can help the chance of the bond passing.
“I think what we all need to do, because not everybody comes to these meetings, if all you know is $94 million, that’s a lot of money. So all of us, when we get the opportunity to talk to friends or family, need to share the facts that we have.”Hauptman said. “I think when they do hear the needs, most people understand.”
The next information session will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Early Childhood Connections, 305 Main.