On Tuesday, November 7, 2023, voters living within the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 boundaries will be asked to vote In Favor or Against approving a $45 million bond to return Highland High School to a fully functioning high school facility with significant improvements and upgrade the multipurpose facilities at Century High School to expand capacity and meet the educational and extracurricular needs of both high school’s student populations.
The bond requires a supermajority (66.67 percent) to pass. Walk-in Early Voting begins on Monday, October 16 and ends on Friday, November 3.
On September 15, the Board voted to submit the bond proposal to District voters. By Election Day, representatives from PCSD 25’s administration and Board will have conducted more than sixty school and community presentations to share information about the bond proposal. All bond information, including concept sketches, the financial/tax impact disclosure, and the FAQs are available for review at sd25.us/elections.
I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) from those presentations.
Based on current conditions, what are the three factors to have the potential for the bond to have a net zero tax impact?
A sizable percentage of the bond principal and interest will be covered by Idaho’s Bond Levy Equalization Program (Idaho Statute 33-906), established in 2002. The program creates a formula under which a school district that passes a bond will receive a percentage of its bond repayments from the State. The only way to be eligible for these State funds is to pass a bond by the 2/3rds vote. The percentage changes each year as the factors in the program formula change, but the District would have received 28.04% if its bonds were outstanding this year, and the District’s percentage over the last 10 years has averaged almost 22%.
Approximately $3.8 million will be received in 2024 from the HB 292 tax relief bill which created the School District Facilities Fund (Idaho Statute 33-911), and this exceeds the expected bond payment of $2.8 million.
100% of the insurance replacement settlement will be directed to rebuilding Highland High School. The district is conservatively estimating that it will receive $25 million for the insurance replacement settlement. The final settlement is pending and will be communicated to the public once it is finalized. The April 21, 2023 fire was ruled accidentally and is considered a covered loss.
What happens if the bond fails?
The bond requires a 2/3 (66.67%) supermajority to pass. If the supermajority threshold is not met, the Board of Trustees will determine the next steps moving forward, which may include, but is not limited to:
Rebuilding Highland according to the original footprint destroyed by the fire using insurance settlement money only. No improvements.
Evaluating the percentage of “In Favor” votes versus “Against” votes and determining if the margin is close enough to warrant putting the issue back on the ballot in May 2024 with the same or a modified proposal.
How will parking be addressed at Highland High School?
On September 19, the Board of Trustees approved a Letter of Intent between the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District and MSP Capital, LLC regarding the exchange of real property pursuant to and in accordance with the authority and requirements set forth at Idaho Code § 33-601(4)(b). In the letter of intent, the district is proposing exchanging approximately 9.9 acres of district-owned property located near Olympus and Jerome in exchange for approximately 6.62 acres of property owned by MSP located across the street from Highland High School. The additional acreage will be utilized to help offset facilities challenges at HHS, including parking.
Why does the bond proposal include upgrading Century High School’s facilities?
Addressing the size of the Century High School gym has been a discussion topic throughout the district’s Capital Improvements Program (CIP) process over the past several years. The cost to address this would require a bond or setting money aside for the next 10-15 years. The goal is to build a larger gym facility at Century High School that can accommodate the entire student body. Currently, Century must limit attendance at some events, and wrestling must use a small room initially intended for dance. A larger gym facility would also open up the ability to host certain state championship tournaments and other community events. Preliminary discussions with the architect and general contractor indicated an updated gym attached to the existing building would be the most cost effective approach.
Why does the bond proposal not address elementary or middle school facility needs?
Regular maintenance is performed routinely according to the District’s Maintenance Plan. Funded primarily with the School Plant Facilities levy, projects are tracked annually for all district properties which include roofing, heat/cooling and ventilation, HVAC, paint, electrical, energy conservation projects, plumbing, asphalt, concrete, irrigation, and kitchen equipment to name a few. At this time no major projects have been identified; however, the district is conducting a review of buildings to determine what needs may exist in the coming 5-10 year period.
What is the financial/tax impact disclosure? Idaho Code Section 34-913 requires any “mass communication” from the District to educate the public about the bond proposal to include the same information that appears on the ballot, which is as follows:
The interest rate anticipated on the proposed bond issue is 3.71% per annum. The total amount estimated to be repaid over the life of the bonds, based on the anticipated interest rate, is $42,497,957, consisting of $45,000,000 in principal and $14,057,750 of interest, less $16,559,793 in estimated bond levy equalization payments. The term of the bonds will not exceed fifteen (15) years from the date of issuance. The estimated average annual cost to the taxpayer on the proposed bond is a tax of $37 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value, per year, based on current conditions. However, the District expects to receive from the State of Idaho school district facilities funds in an amount each year that will exceed the annual payments on the bonds and must first be used to repay the District’s bonds. Consequently, the actual estimated tax impact of the bond is $0 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value, per year, based on current conditions. As of November 7, 2023, the total existing bonded indebtedness of the District, including interest accrued, is $0.00.
When was the district’s last bond?
The last bond was voter-approved on March 4, 1997. That bond funded the construction of Century High School and provided the funding to build a new gym at Pocatello High School and upgrade the school’s HVAC system, bathrooms, and other improvements. The District refinanced the bond in 2012, which resulted in more than $750,000 in savings to local taxpayers.
As the Chairman of the Board, I see firsthand how diligently the administration works to manage the district’s operational budget with a conscientious approach to their role as fiscal stewards of taxpayer funds. The outcome of this conservative approach is a long list of accomplishments that has prevented the District from having to ask our taxpaying neighbors to fund bonds for large facilities projects for nearly three decades.
Most recently, the school district has been able to use existing School Plant Facilities monies to complete significant facilities projects, including funding the purchases including of Downard Funeral Home and the former Allstate Building for the district’s career technical education (CTE) programs. Portneuf Valley Technical Education and Career Campus (PV-TEC, which opened with five programs at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year.
Other recent facilities improvements include the 2021 improvements to Pocatello High School, which added ten additional classroom spaces and ADA accessibility to ninety percent of the school, among many additional benefits. Plant Facility Levy funds also supported the construction of New Horizon Center; the restoration of Alameda as a middle school; and increased ADA accessibility and parking lot improvements with an eye toward safety at many of the district’s schools including Franklin and Hawthorne middle schools and Chubbuck and Edahow elementary schools. The district is currently in the process of bringing its exciting 5-year outdoor facilities improvement project to fruition through its Capital Improvement Program.
Thanks to strong leadership and sound strategic planning, our school facilities are in tremendous shape for their age because of the community’s long standing support. It is an honor and a privilege to serve in a community that has continually championed its youth and its public schools.
If the bond passes, the district pledges to continue an unwavering commitment to stretch every dollar as far as it will go as we work to continue to position PCSD 25 for a strong, successful future. We continue to be united in our commitment to the learners and families of our community to think more, learn more and be MORE TOGETHER.