The portables need to be replaced. No doubt about it. It is my understanding that we are currently going to get a 9 classroom addition to the high school for a price tag of $5.7 million, with a potential of $2 million more of add ons up in the air. Just looking at the 9 classrooms at $5,700,000 would equal out at $633,333 per classroom. Am I the only one that finds it hard to believe that one classroom should cost $600,000.00? I get that the portables are 50 years old and need to be replaced, but it’s no wonder we can’t do more when we spend over half a million for one classroom.

I am not anti-education, I am a big believer in education. I just want to have it explained to me why one classroom needs to cost that much. If the interest rate on the 5.7 million were 4 percent, that would be 228,000 per year in interest alone. Is it too much to ask to get more than one bid on the addition? Does it really need to be two stories and an elevator, with a glass wall? Do people really know what’s going on?

As far as the RPS is concerned. Here’s what the real scoop is. We had an RPS until 2022. In order to have more borrowing capacity and get a cheaper interest rate from the bonders, we needed an RPS for a longer period of time. Without an RPS, there are laws that apply to the SAVE money. They are found in the Iowa Code 423f.3. There are 6 uses for it, they have to be done in order, the first four uses are to pay off debt, levies, and bonds. The fifth use is then for infrastructure and the last use is to pay interest.

In order to circumvent this law, the law allows for an RPS. It lets you skip the first four uses and go straight to borrowing money for infrastructure, without paying down debt. That’s what they mean by local control. No rps, means you go by state law, which means pay debt then build. With an RPS you get to build or remodel before you pay off existing debt.

The irony is, that we had true local control. The way it is meant to happen, is the school board proposes a project, then we practice local control by voting on it, then general bonds are issued and we go into debt for said project. We don’t have to have an RPS to do that. With an RPS, the school board no longer has to have public comment and no longer has to have a vote on what they do. We lost our right to vote. We lost true local control. They can issue revenue bonds instead of general bonds. Voters have absolutely NO SAY whatsoever. Mark my words, the school board wants to build a new middle school and they have to take no public comment, and there will be no vote on the bonds.

The concerning thing, and you are never told this, is that your property is the collateral on these bonds that you don’t get to vote on. If we go through a recession and sales tax revenue drops off then your property taxes automatically go up to guarantee those bonds. What people don’t understand is that the school already has taxing authority. What they didn’t have was spending authority. Now with the RPS they have both. They don’t have to ask to raise the tax rates, that’s their prerogative. They can raise taxes anytime they want without a vote. Now they can also go into deep debt anytime they want without a vote.

The budget went up by 14.25 percent last year for the school. Who else in this county had a 14.25% raise? How does the school get their money? By taxes. Sales tax or prop tax. The 2016-17 budget is $23,248,633. Last year it was $20,341,778 . That is over a 2.9 million increase. Or 14.25% The money will have to come from somewhere. This year was added funding from the state, but what about next year. Why not raise teacher pay instead of build?

Iowa State University released a report in 2013 that is interesting : www.icip.iastate.edu/sites/default/files/district_2013/sd_6098.pdf

It shows Tama at a tax rate of 16.03 compared to the state average of 15.01. The neighboring districts averaged 14.30. With North Tama 11.69 and Gladbrook being 11.13.

The sad part? We have one of the highest tax rates in the state, and some of the lowest teacher pay. State average is over 52,000 (as of 2013), the other schools around here are about 48,000 and STC is 46,500.

So our taxes certainly aren’t going to pay our teachers. How can we have one of the highest tax rates in the state and some of the lowest paid teachers? It’s my understanding the best thing about our district are the teachers. I doubt we are going to be offering raises and bonuses to teachers if we keep spending money how we’re spending it. Look at it this way. You could give every teacher in the district a 6,000 bonus for the same amount it takes to build a 633,333.00 classroom. If you knocked the price of each classroom down by a mere 24,000 dollars, you could give every teacher a 2,000 bonus.

STC has 7 administrators being paid from $70,000 to $128,000.00. reports.educateiowa.gov/Home/reportWrapper

Does that mean the school board members are each getting $70,000.00? I don’t know, but I would like to know. And the superintendent is at 128,000.00? And the teachers are 46,500?

The school gets about 7,000.00 per year for each child enrolled. What if parents had to pay that? What if parents had to pay a tuition? Parents might see to it then that their child actually learned, and their tuition money was spent wisely, including paying good teachers what they deserve. They might keep the school boards spending in check. They might actually want to be able to vote on going more in debt, cause they would know it would mean a tuition increase. Most people in town with nice homes including the school board members pay about 2,500 to 3,000 per year in taxes. Most farmers and small businesses pay at least 3,000 per month. Some family farmers pay 3,000 PER WEEK! Tell me how that is fair or right. Some times I think that the education we are giving kids get valued at exactly what it costs people. A free education gets valued like other “free” stuff gets valued. By both the pupils and the parents. We pay a gas tax for roads, that means the people using the roads pay for them through the gas tax. What if the people using the schools actually paid for them, through a tax or tuition. That means if you currently pay 3,000 in taxes and have three kids in school, you would only have to pay another 18,000 in taxes or tuition for your kids. What if you can’t afford it? Well, should we give gas to people who can’t afford gas, so they can drive? I only ask those questions to make the point that it is pretty easy to spend money that other people make. Every thing you get without working for, someone else worked for without getting it. I know 3,000 seems like you’re paying a lot of taxes and you would think that is going a long ways, but that wouldn’t get one kid halfway through the year. Someone else is picking up the tab for the rest. It’s pretty easy spending other people’s money. If you were told that property taxes would be done away with and a tuition would be instated, you would watch the school board and how it spends money as closely as I do.

The point is, someone is paying for your children’s “free” education. I wish people would treat the STC district’s money with a little more respect. Classrooms costing $633,333.00 each seems like a little much. I’m not anti-education. I am a big fan of education. I think the portables need to be done away with. I just think we could build 9 classrooms for a whole lot less than 5.7 million dollars. That’s why we can’t have nice things, and have to wait 50 years to replace temporary classrooms, because we can’t do it wisely.

All I really care about is people knowing the truth and having a proper perspective on things. I desperately want to understand the perspective of someone that believes 633,333.00 dollar classrooms are necessary. You could build three really nice houses for that! I want someone to explain it to me in simple terms that I can understand, instead of just writing me off as anti education. I can afford a tax increase. Senior citizens on fixed incomes can’t, but I can. I just think information ought to be available and people ought to know how things are. I haven’t lied or stretched the truth one bit. I think I have posed reasonable questions for any open minded critical thinking person. Just because you ask the hard questions don’t mean you are against education. Just because we build a 5.7 million dollar addition don’t mean we are for education. If you ran a business like the school district is run, you’d go bankrupt in no time. Parents and voters should always know what is happening and have a say in it.