This week is part 2 of a 6 part series I’m writing to inform our school district of things I’ve learned so far as a school board member. This week I’m writing about construction of the new middle school at the old juvenile home. The $30 million project helped to solve the community problem of what to do with the facility. The area is being constructed into an awesome learning center and 42 lots for new homes for our community. There were a lot of people involved with this process. It has truly been a community effort to get to this point. Anyone interested in buying a lot can contact the City of Toledo at 641-484-2160.

Our new school is on schedule to be complete by May of 2025. There have been many challenges and changes as this process unfolds. Like any remodel project, there are surprises. However, the architects, contractors, and school districts’ decisions have worked to our benefit with very little additional cost to the district. This project is still within our contingency budget and is still less than 1% over projected cost. Projects of this magnitude are expected to be 5 to 10% over the projected budget.

The new addition will be home to a gymnasium, cafeteria, band and music, student fitness center and locker rooms. Most of the space is considered a storm shelter. The solid cement slab walls have been constructed to be a shelter for up to 800 people. This area could easily become a community center if we ever had a natural disaster happen in Tama-Toledo. There is also the potential for connecting to the huge generator across the street to the west to power the facility if needed. The main portion of the school was mostly gutted all the way down to replacing the sewer, water lines, and all new electrical.

Our new school will be approximately 93,000 square feet, nearly twice as large as the present middle school. This increased square footage per student will be more inline with today’s standards.The heating and cooling system of the school will be more efficient by using the existing geothermal field. This will be a huge savings to the district’s utility bill.

On the financial side of things, before the new middle school project started. Our debt repayment on the elementary and the high school remodel was $2.70/1000 on property tax valuations. Since then, the elementary has been paid off, three years ahead of time. The high school remodel project balance of $4.9 million has been refinanced with the new middle schools 30 million dollar expense for a total of approximately $35 million. The completion of this project should last our district 50 years and beyond for the future of our community.

Now stay with me on this next point… Our loan payments are paid by two different sources: $15 million are General Obligation (G.O.) bonds. These bonds will be paid back by property tax dollars at $2.06/1000 valuation for the next 22 years. The debt service levy rates will go from $2.70/1000 to $2.06/1000, a $.64/1000 reduction. Another $19 million will be paid back by revenue generated by the $.01 sales tax. Also known as SAVE dollars. This portion of debt will be paid in 20 years. Other funds on hand will pay the balance.

The money we borrowed for this project cost us about 4.25% interest. The majority of this money has been reinvested with 3 local banks until the money is needed to pay for work completed. The local banks are paying us about 5% interest. This should generate $909,000 interest income for our district. Our district is fortunate to be in this position.

When this project is complete and we’ve moved into the new middle school next summer, it is the school district’s goal to sell the properties we no longer need. The goal is to be able to keep ownership and access to the gymnasiums at the present middle school and partnership center in Tama. Then sell the classroom portions of the old schools. We also want to sell the Toledo football field, tennis court and park areas. This will reduce the mowing and costly maintenance to the district. This could give us a potential savings of approximately $50,000 annually. In turn, this savings would be used to help pay for the new middle school maintenance and operations.

Well that’s a lot to take in for now. So until next week, that’s how I see it!

Rick Hopper is a member of the South Tama County Board of Education.