St. Joseph School District Superintendent Dr. Robert Newhart says eventually “something has to give.” The Board of Education voted to postpone indefinitely consideration of the proposed lease-purchase financing for renovations at Noyes School to create an early-childhood education center.
It marked the first effort by the administration improve the finances for capital projects in the district since the operating levy expired about a year ago after the district received a scathing report from the State Auditor. It also could mark the beginning of a new effort to revive the district’s operating levy. District officials will re-think all of their options in coming weeks, and Newhart says nothing is off the table.
Dr. Newhart says he doesn’t feel the Noyes renovations were the reason the plan was shelved, but rather the way it was to be funded.
“No, I do not believe that the project itself is the issue for the postponement,” he said in an interview. “It’s more due to the financing piece, if that’s the correct way to go, or the best way to go. Then also there are other needs in the district, such as HVAC of the middle schools and high schools that need to be done as well.”
He says the board and district staff are concerned moving forward with overall operations after losing the 63-cent operating levy.
“Something has to give,” he says, “All this was part of a a corrective action plan which ultimately is going to require community engagement, and hopefully a new revenue piece, as well as trying to meet the facility needs that we have.”
Newhart is grappling with a number of high priorities. He says overall maintenance of the older buildings runs from $1 million to $1.5 million a year, and that occurs each year on a dwindling capital projects budget. He says the district needs to set up a financing plan that meets both short-term and long-term needs. Add that to his high priority capital projects.
“To prioritize this right now, you need additional space for reduced classroom sizes, the HVAC, particularly the high schools and the two middle schools that need to be addressed, and the pre-school issue.”
Newhart did not rule out the possibility of trying to revive the operating levy in the future.
“You’ve got to have a community engagement arm in the meantime to find out what the public can and will, or may not, support,” he says, “but I think that has to be discussed and talked about, yes.”
“Somewhere along the line here, when you’re deficit spending at approximately 3% annually, it’s not going to take too many years here where something has to give.”
