D91 holds board meeting to discuss new bond proposal
Earlier today Idaho Falls School District 91 held a 4 hour work session board meeting to discuss a new proposal for the rejected bond back in November.
The vote was 6,826 in favor for the bond, and 4,853 votes against it. The 58% approval was short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass.
“We put a bond before patrons and,” Margaret Wimborne, Coordinator of Communications and Community Engagement for D91, said. “While it got 58% of the vote, it did not get the super majority it needed.”
District 91 board members came together to talk about the best way to move forward and to remodel the bond.
“One of the concerns we heard from patrons was just that the cost of the overall bond,” said Wimborne.
D91 asked for a $110 million bond to build a new Idaho Falls High School and rebuild Skyline High School.
A majority of the discussion today was to look at the scope and costs of the building.
“Were there things that we could cut back,” Wimborne said. “Were there some things that we could not do, that would lower those costs.”
D91 is working with Bateman-Hall contractors and Hummel Architects to come up with suggestions to lower costs.
Board members contributed ideas and looked at options they may be happy to cut back on.
“Again its just an effort to kind of look at the bond and are there ways to reduce,” Wimborne said. “That scope would still meet the needs of students.”
They hope to do more community outreach to hear even more from the public about what they might want to see in these next steps.
“Our community is very diverse, we’ve got lots of parents who care about the arts, who care about sports everyone cares about education,” Wimborne said. “So its kind of a matter of managing all of those needs.”
The board also toyed around with the idea of putting the new bond up for the May election instead of August. If they were to do so they need to declare that in March.
As of now there is no new no bond set, it is still just discussions. If the bond does go to election again they will need a majority vote.
Later this month the district will hold a closed meeting with focus groups, to get a better idea of what the public may want in this new bond proposal.
