Dear Editor
Recently there has been a fair amount of discussion about the School Boards decision to refer the Bond Extension issue back to the voters later this year. I can certainly understand in these increasingly tough times that those with fixed incomes in particular do not want to see any additional cost come into their lives that they can avoid. The fact is that this is no an increase but an extension. In other words, there is no change in cost to anyone for over a decade. If you have heard otherwise, it is simply not true. This chance does not add on one cent to your current taxes. What the Board desires is to extend the current bond out beyond the current expiration in the early 2020’s. It is true that if nothing else changes over the next 12 plus years that you would see the current cost for the bond stay the same as it is now when it expires over 12 years from now. Please keep that in mind.
I have heard some say they would prefer to go ahead and just build a brand new High School from the ground up. I would like to see that as well, but that would definitely require a tax increase now and given the current climate, I do not see that happening. The middle school was designed from the beginning to be expanded to a high school. There is also a strong need to update the elementary school for safety and update parts of the rapidly aging current high school building.
We have a window of opportunity to secure the bond extension at rates that will not likely come again and get these projects completed. Do not expect the need for these projects to go away or for costs to complete them to decline. If anything, it will just get more expensive if we wait. I certainly do not want us to wait so long that something happens that causes the state to come in and mandate changes that we have not planned for or when financial conditions are less favorable than now and end up with a true tax increase.
I respect those that vote, whether they voted for or against this issue.
This letter is for those of you who have not voted. It is absolutely for those of you who have children or grandchildren in the district and have not voted. Your help is needed now to update the school facilities for your children and relatives. No one in these tough times wants to see more expense but the fact is that this proposal will not increase your expense for over a decade and even these simply keeps it the same as now. Please vote and consider supporting these needed changes.
Sincerely,
Brad Frazier
St. James, Mo. —
