Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Millage Increase To Benefit School Facilities First

A small but enthusiastic crowd was on hand for the second public meeting concerning a millage increase for the Prescott School District.

The district is seeking a 3 mill increase for 25 years to pay for renovations at Prescott Elementary, Prescott Middle and Prescott High schools, along with building a new gymnasium at PHS.

Superintendent Ron Wright said with such a small crowd it would be best to be informal and let people talk as needed.

He began by reminding the audience the Prescott School Board, on May 11, was looking at renovations needed in the amount of about $750,000. Most of the work involved getting new roofs on PES and PMS, while upgrading the PMS gym.

The problem, though, was where would the money come from.

The board debated on asking for a millage increase for a couple of months, before deciding to go ahead and seek the hike.

Once this decision was made, the next question was how much of an increase would be needed, how long would it have to be on the books and specifically what projects would be included.

Some projects had to be started before the election could be held, including getting a new roof on PES. Because of leaks, this was essential.

During the debating process, local residents began asking about a new gym. The existing one can't handle the capacity crowds during home games and is too small to host regional tournaments in.

This led to more talks about what the money should be used for, if a millage was passed, and eventually, plans for a new gym were included in the overall strategy.

Wright told those present early voting has already begun, and encouraged all who can to get out and vote. He also said the district needs to find a way to get the elderly to the polls as well on Sept. 21.

He said in spite of the work done at PHS after the April 1, 1996, fire, the roof still leaks. In fact, the recent rains leaked into the computer lab damaging some equipment.

This roof, though is still under warranty and the installing company will be called to make good on the warranty.

Some of the planned improvements include new heating and air conditioning units at both PES and PMS, as well as lowering the ceilings in both schools, while adding drop lighting.

The restrooms at both schools will also be upgraded with new facilities.

"There's still more to be done," Wright said. "Job one is to fix our three schools up. This will be done before the gym is built.

"We need to take care of our educational facilities first."

When the gym is finally built, he said, its lobby will be used as a lunchroom for senior high students.

This will keep this group of students from having to cross a city street to go to the PES cafeteria, while also preventing them from mingling with the younger children.

"The district," Wright said, "is committed to providing blue ribbon schools and accountability in the classroom. We're moving in the right direction, but we're not where we want to be yet."

The staff, he said, didn't balk at the checkpoint program. In fact, all of the teachers have embraced the concept.

This program requires teachers to build graphs of their class progress so they can find the weak areas for the class overall as well as individual students.

"This has been an educational process for all of us," he said of the millage issue.

However, he pointed out, during the recent legislative session, the General Assembly voted for an incentive program for those school districts with building projects. In fact, the state could pay as much as 39 percent of the overall construction cost of all the projects, should the millage pass.

Wright said this is the state's way of providing incentives for communities to improve their educational facilities.

Mickey Roberts, with the firm of Beardsley and Rainey, said schools in business today need to be in debt because of the state's incentive package.

Originally, the state was going to pick up a third of the construction costs, but raised it to 39 percent.

He said Wright got 10 years experience in one year because of the millage issue. "When you do one of these, you learn a lot.

"He understands finance and is a good finance person. He has a good board behind him."

Roberts said the entire community should be proud of the work done on the millage issue.

Wright said this is a great window of opportunity for the district as some bond issues are being paid off, so the district will get the benefit of the millage increase, if it passes, and having the other bonds paid off.

"We need to seize this opportunity for progress and go on," he said.

Board member Jim Franks suggested having a public meeting after the school election, should the issue pass, and show the people mock ups of the planned work to be done.

Roberts said there is nothing simple about this financing. The district, he said, is basically restructuring two current bonds and extending its debt out.

Franks pointed out if the state wasn't going to pick up 39 percent of the construction costs, the district would have had to seek a 5 mill hike. "This is like the state paying 2 mill," he said.