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$5.6 million bond would improve St. Ignatius Schools facilities

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ST. IGNATIUS – The St. Ignatius School District is running a school improvement bond for the third time for voters to decide on in the Nov. 6 election, but if it doesn’t pass this time, the school might have another taxbased option.

The bond at $5.6 million would be used to develop new facilities. When the bond was run in 2016, project costs were at $4.6 million, but the cost of construction and materials has increased. Superintendent Jason Sargent said the same project could cost $7.6 million in 2022. “The longer we wait, the more it costs,” he said.

The project did include funding for deferred maintenance, which would tack on another $1.2 million, but an INTERCAP loan will be used instead.

“We are borrowing the $1.2 million for maintenance to keep the bond lower and so we can get those problems taken care of,” he said. “There is no way we can continue to wait for the state to provide funding.”

Sargent said the school was number one on the state’s list for schools with infrastructure needs in the last legislative session, which put them in first place for one of the Quality Schools Grants for almost $700,000, but the majority of legislatures didn’t vote to make the funding available after the state experienced budget shortfalls.

The loan funds will be used to fix things like the seams on the elementary school building where additions to the building were added in the 1980s but not properly sealed. The problem allows water to leak into the walls and creates a safety concern. The school was forced to take funding out of their Impact Aid to fix the leaking roof when water was dripping into classrooms. Ceiling tile and insulation started coming down in a few classrooms. “We would rather use that money for reading and learning programs, but the roof had to be fixed,” he said.

Other items on the list include fixing lockers, repairing the tennis court, bathroom updates, a ceiling repair job on the current gym and removing a hazardous office building.

Funding from the bond would be used for a new career and technology center with a shop, family and consumer sciences room, technology lab for career development in nursing, medical, culinary arts, early childhood development, teaching, business, technology, automotive, plumbing, electrical, welding, coding, carpentry, and more. The project includes a new gym, locker rooms, and weight room.

“Career and technology jobs are changing, and we want to offer our kids the best opportunities we can and invest in their futures,” Sargent said. “We need a new gym because we’ve got students on the road at 5:30 in the morning and 9:30 at night for sports practice when it’s dark and that can be dangerous. They also need to be home studying or spending time with the family. It’s also a problem for visiting teams who don’t get back on the road until late when we are rotating a number of games. Scheduling middle school and high school classes in one gym is a challenge. We need more space for our students.”

If the bond passes, it would raise the taxes on a $100,000 home by about $190 a year for 20 years. If the bond doesn’t pass, Sargent will have to find a new way to generate funds for the school for the building projects. He said the school recently found a new company to take over the school’s bus contract for five years. Before he found the new company, he looked into what it would take for the school to run the buses and found a tax-based option.

If the school runs the buses, taxpayers in the district will have to pay a bus depreciation tax that could be assessed without running an election. Sargent said he talked to superintendents in nearby schools to develop an estimated figure for running school buses. Local taxpayers would pay a bus depreciation tax worth 20 percent for every bus, which is about $300,000 a year. Sargent said a portion of the funding from the bus tax could be saved until the school had enough for the construction projects.

In the past few years, the school district asked taxpayers to pass the bond twice and it failed. Sargent said he has listened to members of the public say they can’t afford to have their taxes increased. “This is a large sacrifice, and we have empathy for people, but we believe our students are worth it. In St. Ignatius, we have outstanding students and staff, and we want a facility to match that.”

Sargent welcomes people to call him with questions at 406-745-3811 or 406-396-7839.

Email is also available at jsargent@stignatiusschools. org.

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