D93 Solutions Committee presents bond alternative

Bonneville School District 93 could have another bond on the table for November elections. Thursday, School District 93 patrons, taxpayers and interested parties, along with the trustees, were invited to the Iona city building to discuss a possible solution to the district’s overcrowding.

The D93 Solutions Committee, a group made up of concerned citizens, presented a plan to build a new middle school. This was in response to the three previous failed school bonds that called for a new high school.

“Most ‘Yes’ voters and most ‘No’ voters can get behind this plan,” said committee spokesperson Brian Stutzman. “The plan calls for a flexible middle school. It’s the right plan in the right order.”

The district’s board chairman, Brian McBride, said the district is open to considering this solution as long as it proves to be what’s best for the students.

“We have to keep the children in mind,” McBride said. “This is their education and this is opportunities for them to grow and to develop, and our community really needs a solution to our overcrowding problem.”

The committee says this solution avoids split sessions, requires just one bond and election, solves overcrowding in grades 7-12 for at least 10 years, and doesn’t raise tax rates.

“As long as we don’t have a building built and a bond passed, whether it’s next year or two years or three years, it’s that elephant in the room that will always be dividing this community, until it’s passed, built and we can move on,” said Stutzman.

Some say either side of this argument will simply switch sides on this issue, with 2015’s bond naysayers calling for a ‘yes’ vote to what use to be the opposition. But the school board said there may be a compromise through investigating this alternative.

“First, make sure that’s a viable solution, but we also have to take into consideration the community. We have to do some homework. We have to make sure that we’re making the correct decision,” McBride said. “We do know that there is a very strong support of a high school. Now with an idea of a middle school put in the mix, we have to find out whether or not the numbers work.”

But some in opposition to this solution say the committee hasn’t proven that the numbers will work, and asked for transparency. The committee addressed those concerns on its website with the following Q&As:
Q: What are the names of everyone who you have talked to or has been or will be on your committee?
A: As a baseball player famously once said, “that’s a clown question.” Actually, this is just an attempt to focus on the messenger instead of the message. It’s a good sign that our message is too good to defeat. We have considered this request and recently decided not publish this information. It’s just an attempt to distract voters from realizing the failed high school proposal is a two part solution that requires split sessions and tax hikes. We have a better plan and it really doesn’t matter the origins because it stands on its’ own. Unlike the high school proposal that keeps failing.

Q: We heard you did a community survey. We want a copy.
A: We privately paid for a large survey and hired a reputable firm out of Texas for that. We did this to gauge the support for scrapping the defeated high school plan once and for all and replacing it with a new proposal. We were pleased with the results enough to go forward with our meeting, presentation, and plan. Let’s just say the community support for a plan like ours that avoids split sessions and solves the problem with one election was substantial. Since our poll was paid for privately by us, we have decided not to publish it or even widely quote it. We did it for internal tracking purposes and can confidently say our plan will pass an election!

School board trustees will consider this solution with other alternatives at their work session on Aug. 26. The committee and trustees say they hope to draft a bond agreement by September, in time for November elections.

For more information on this solution and an opportunity to weigh in, you can go to D93solutions.com.