Referendum calls for total of about $25 million to address district safety, maintenance and educational needs
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
The Elkhorn Area School District’s community-based facility advisory committee provided its report to the school board Monday night, and in turn recommended a two-part referendum question for the spring ballot to address the district’s multiple needs.
The advisory committee was formed Sept. 8 to research, evaluate and support the development of a community-wide survey and make facilities recommendations to the board. The committee is comprised of Elkhorn residents – both parents and non-parents – local educators, local businessmen and women and elected officials from the City. According to District Administrator Jason Tadlock, the last time the district went to referendum was in 2007.
The two-part referendum – which the board is expected to make a final decision on at one of its January meetings if it wants it to be on the April ballot – calls for two sums of money: the first being a total of $20.42 million to address safety and maintenance concerns, the second being $4.73 million for a new athletic facility at the high school.
Committee member Jeff Rosendahl said Monday the committee identified numerous facility needs in the district including building and site safety and security, infrastructure needs like roofing, HVAC, plumbing and energy efficiency improvements, and core spaces at West Side and Tibbets elementary schools. Core spaces refer to spaces like gyms, bathrooms, libraries and cafeterias, something Rosendahl noted were either marginal or undersized for the current student population at those schools.
All in all, the committee identified more than $40 million in needs for the district, a lot of which came from a virtual tour of the district the committee took on Sept. 23.
Rosendahl said some things that hit home to him were the need for small group learning spaces, rather than taking groups out into the hallway, a need for special education learning spaces among the district’s three elementary schools and music students crammed into music spaces also used for storage.
“I’m a trombone player, so I can testify to the challenges of teaching and learning while you’re dodging someone else’s instrument,” he said.
Additionally, Rosendahl noted the need for updating spaces for technical education, culinary arts and the Project Lead the Way curriculum, noting the district is losing students because of it.
“Our spaces for those items are not what they should be,” he said.
In regards to the community survey sent out earlier this fall both online and in the mail, committee member Barry Butters – director of education and training and Elkhorn’s Precision Plus – said the committee received 1,445 responses from the community, well above the expected 400 for a community Elkhorn’s size. Survey results can be found on the district’s website as well as presentation from Bill Foster of School Perceptions on the results.
Butters said Foster did a great job of explaining to the committee what the survey was telling them and offered one piece of advice.
“That’s to listen to what the survey is telling you,” Butters said.
Looking at the four groups on the survey – all residents, staff, parent and non-parent, non-staff residents – Butters said Foster told them the non-parent, non-staff group is the group of respondents the committee wants to focus on most, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the likely voters in the district.
Butters said looking at the first question, asking if residents would support a referendum for the three elementary schools needs, showed 53 percent of the non-parent, non-staff group supported the idea, 34 percent saying no. About 13 percent of the respondents said undecided, something Butters said Foster pointed out is sometimes a polite way of saying no, but could also mean respondents might have question about what they’re answering.
As for high school referendum, only 34 percent said yes, with 40 percent saying no. Butters said remodeling the library and cafeteria received a fair amount of support, though remodeling the auditorium and athletic areas received less as a group.
As for technological education, Butters said the community responded with a resounding yes, something he’s excited about due to the need with the skills gap and manufacturers looking to fill the talent pipeline in the industry.
District-wide maintenance and improvement, according to Butters, seemed to be a “no-brainer.”
“It looks as though people are saying if there’s stuff that needs to be fixed in our district, fix it,” he said.
As for air conditioning, Butters said most people would suggest that it’s something that isn’t necessarily a need.
“Ironically though, all these parents in the district who have sat in those hot gymnasiums for whatever events there are would suggest that maybe this is a bigger issue,” he said, noting the resounding yes amongst the parent group.
Safety and security also seemed to be a no-brainer according to Butters.
Overall, for a question relating to supporting overall improvements if they were deemed acceptable, Butters said the results showed strong support for the referendum.
“I think the people of Elkhorn are very proud of their school district and want to continue to see it continue to be one of those things they’re most proud of,” he said.
Overall, the referendum is expected to impact district taxes by about $35 annually on a $100,000 home, according to District Business Manager Bill Trewyn.
The school board is expected to discuss the proposed referendum in January’s upcoming meetings, making a decision on whether or not the referendum will be on the April ballot.
