Tecumseh Public Schools gear up to share bond proposal information with district voters

By DEB WUETHRICH

On May 6, voters in the Tecumseh school district will be asked to approve two bond proposals that would allow the district to proceed with infrastructure needs at all educational levels. While there are two proposals — Proposal 1 for $12,280,000, and Proposal II for $24,450,000 — the school district believes all the work is necessary, from replacing boilers, upgrading technology and remodeling elementary school buildings to taking on some projects that will make Tecumseh schools more competitive in drawing students, such as adding an auxiliary gym at the high school, adding a music room, and providing a new track, athletic fields and practice fields.

“If you can’t compete and hold onto kids, you go out of business,” said Superintendent Mike McAran. “It’s a much different concept than it was ten years ago, and we know it’s a hard sell, but if you can’t modernize and adapt, then you can’t compete.”

District officials state that the bond program does not increase a taxpayer’s current millage rate, and that the current rate of 7.2 mills is simply extended. (See related story).

 School officials and board of education members realize that the proposals, totaling $36.73 million, come at a time when taxpayers already are feeling the pinch of a tough economy in Michigan. They also know that school district constituents will need more information about the projects that need to be accomplished throughout the district before making a decision and have prepared data sheets for that purpose.

“We also have a Power Point presentation and display boards that we can take before groups who would like to see them,” said McAran, who said a citizen’s committee also is assisting in educating the public about the district’s needs. McAran said the district has been studying long-term facility needs and goals for a long time as part of its Strategic Plan. A Facilities Committee made up of Board of Education members has been studying the idea of the bond proposals for more than two years, and last year the full board made a decision to split the needs out into two proposals, placing the most urgent needs into Proposal 1. In addition to mechanical work at the elementary schools and doing some remodeling that will allow school office personnel to monitor entrances, Work also will be done at Tecumseh Community Pool.

McAran pointed out if the district can get such work done through bond dollars instead of using general fund dollars, which has been the case with urgent repairs, such as when the Administrative Service Center roof has leaked and needed to be patched, then there would be more money for instructional programs. Bond dollars can only be used for construction and remodeling of facilities, purchase of technology equipment, equipment and furniture, and site improvements.

Interim Business Manager Bill Wright said that there has been a lot of deferred maintenance putting pressure on general fund dollars. “The question is how do you fix things with operational money when enrollment is declining?” he said, noting that foundation allowance dollars are based on the number of students each school has, and being the primary source of dollars for the district. “So if you can eliminate deferred maintenance and fix buildings up at the same time you attract new people into the community and the school district, you’ve helped solve your own problem.”

 
Proposal II items include upgrades and additions that would help Tecumseh be competitive, according to McAran, by attracting students to the district, both by retaining more students who currently opt to go elsewhere, and drawing in others from surrounding communities. He said he knows that the district lost some students during a period when the district worked out an issue involving integrated math, and again while it worked out kindergarten programs, and noted that parents will look elsewhere when they are unhappy with a district’s offerings.

“We have set up a society that’s a lot different than what we had a few years ago, and people are accustomed to nice things and they want that for their kids,” said McAran. “That’s part of the competition.”

If both measures do not pass, McAran said it would be a matter of looking closely at what the school district can and cannot afford to do.

“Realistically, you have to take care of your facilities,” he said. “But you might have to change the way you do business and look at some things differently.” As an example, he said many groups want to use the football field, which has to be tended to, but maybe there would have to be restricted use in order to keep it maintained. Groups who currently use school facilities for free might have to pay rent.

McAran said that there have been discussions about setting up an oversight committee made up of community members to help ensure that contractors deliver exactly what the voters approve in each bond proposal. Some questions still remain among constituents over work that was assumed to be done when the new high school was constructed eight years ago, and during renovation projects at the elementary schools two years later.

“Somebody dropped the ball,” McAran acknowledges, noting that those matters came before his tenure as superintendent. “Having an oversight committee would provide a group that would hold everyone accountable,” he said. McAran also said that the district also would hire local contractors wherever possible, putting local dollars back into the local economy.

“This has been a huge process to figure out what we needed to do,” said McAran. “We’ve had to look at what we believed we needed and then pared it back. Then we had to apply actual cost figures to come up with the packages we have.”  

With passage of either or both proposals, work could commence on the projects by the spring of 2009. To obtain more information about the two proposals, or to schedule an educational presentation about the proposed projects, contact the Tecumseh School Board Office at 424-7318.