Bayfield School District is surveying voters to see if they will support another tax increase four years after extending a bond issue and approving a mill levy override.
The school board will review results at its Feb. 9 meeting.
District owners representative Marty Zwisler recently presented cost comparisons on school construction options to the school board.
The cost difference was $179,000 on two options to build a new school across the street from the middle school, Zwisler said. Option 1 would be a school for grades 3-5 with an estimated cost of $29.3 million; Option 2 would be a K-2 school with costs estimated at $29.1 million.
Both options include a gym that could accommodate middle school activities instead of a smaller elementary school gym, and renovation of the district administrative offices on Clover Drive at an estimated cost of $860,000. School board members eliminated an option to renovate the Early Primary School east building for district offices at a cost of $2.5 million.
Option 1 also includes major renovation and additions at the elementary school to accommodate grades K-2, with an estimated cost of $8.2 million. The overall cost for option 1 is $38.9 million. Option 2 has less extensive renovation at Bayfield Elementary to accommodate grades 3-5, with costs estimated of $5.8 million. The total cost for option 2 is $35.8 million.
District officials will apply for a Colorado Department of Education BEST grant to help pay for the project.
Superintendent Troy Zabel said the state has reduced the maximum amount the district must pay from 31 percent of total cost to 28 percent because “average income in Bayfield is actually higher than in Durango. Shocking!”
School board members are mulling whether to ask voters to approve a bond issue this November, and how much money to ask for. Board members were concerned that the survey draft presented by Zabel had too many options. His survey introduction framed the problem and said that without a bond issue, the option would be to install two more modulars with four classrooms at Bayfield Elementary.
Board member Carol Blatnick said that sounded like a threat. Instead, the board decided to list it as Option 3 on the survey with a cost of $550,000 that could be paid for with operating revenue.
Blatnick and Zabel suggested other options: go back to half-day kindergarten instead of full day, or larger class sizes. But District Finance Director Amy Lyons reminded them that full-day kindergarten was promised with the 2012 mill-levy override. State per-pupil funding covers only a partial day of kindergarten.
Tax impacts as listed on the survey would be:
For option 1, the owner of the average home worth $280,000 would pay about $240 a year more without the BEST grant or $175 with the full grant.
For Option 2, the cost would be $220 a year without the grant or $160 with.
The larger gym would cost about $2.60 a year more than a small gym, Zabel said.
Take the survey
To take the survey, Bayfield School District residents can go online at surveymonkey.com/r/bsdbondsurvey2016.
