Campaign Q&A
If you have a question about the upcoming bond issue, please submit here. We will answer it as soon as we can. Answers will be posted to the FAQ page. Thank you!
Answer: The board has called an election for a bond ‘not to exceed’ $5,495,000. Registered voters residing in the district will be asked to vote For or Against the authorization to issue up to but not over this amount.
Answer: The board and administrative team have been working on a project design to address safety/security and the need for classroom space for approximately three years. These efforts have focused on addressing the current needs of the district while trying to keep the overall project cost and tax impact to a minimum.
Answer:
PreK-12 Enrollment History
PreK-6 7-12 Total
2023-24 201 143 344
2022-23 199 136 335
2021-22 192 122 314
2020-21 178 126 304
2019-20 166 133 299
Anticipated PreK and Kindergarten numbers indicate stable enrollment going forward. The project provides the needed space for our current enrollment with flexibility for future growth.
Answer: The projected tax impact is 9.2 cents per $100 of valuation. This projection is based on current bond rates for a 20 year bond (around 4.30%) and the district’s current LB2 valuation. The district’s LB2 valuation converts ag land from about 72% in assessed valuation down to 50% of assessed valuation for the purposes of a bond election per statute. An individual tax calculator is available on the Financial Page.
Kearney Public Schools 1.1930 Surrounding Districts
Elm Creek Public Schools 1.0980 Conference Districts
SEM Public Schools 1.0674
Pleasanton Public Schools 1.0194
Holdrege Public Schools 0.9763
Axtell Community Schools w/Bond 0.9448
Overton Public Schools 0.9437
Minden Public Schools 0.9245
Ansley Public Schools 0.8535
Axtell Community Schools 0.8528
Amherst Public Schools 0.8004
Eustis-Farnam Public Schools 0.7566
Wilcox Hildreth Public Schools 0.7401
Many would say there is no perfect time to run a bond issue. Waiting for bond rates to come down or for commodities to improve may result in a higher cost of construction due to annual inflation of around 5%. A bond issue becomes the responsibility of all district patrons over an extended period of time in which the economic environment may change. Almost all school bond issues at some point during their maturity length are refinanced to lower rates allowing them to be paid off earlier or resulting in a reduction in the annual tax request for bond payments.
The board is utilizing the Design Build construction delivery method which requires certain procedural steps per state statute. A Request For Proposal (RFP) was advertised based on the project criteria with two construction teams responding. These teams were then interviewed by the board and BD Construction and Wilkins ADP, both out of Kearney were selected for the project.
The district’s architect has taken the needs of the district and created a conceptual design that includes all necessary square footage for enrollment, space for existing and desired educational programs, and other design concepts to be included in the project if there is a successful bond issue. It is extremely uncommon for a school district to pay the costs of spec/bid drawings unless there is a successful bond.
Architect renderings are provided to give the public a general idea of how the project will look upon completion. They are reflective of the potential final product, but still conceptual in nature. Input provided to the board will continue to be considered until final design if potential changes can remain within the approved budget.
The district is utilizing the Design Build construction delivery model which includes hiring a team including architect and construction firm. The construction firm has taken appropriate measures of contingency within the bond budget.
If the bond passes on May 14th construction would begin in the Fall of 2024. The construction timeline is anticipated to span approximately 14 months. It would be the goal to have substantial completion by the 2025 school year.
The construction firm has been a part of numerous school projects and prioritizes safety and minimal disruption to student learning. While there will always be some disruption, the construction firm will work with administration and teachers to plan for the most disruptive construction to take place when school is not in session and will have ongoing communication with administration and teachers regarding scheduling and impact on learning.
In an ideal world there would be no building site limitations to addressing the needs of the district. Several other design ideas and addition locations have been discussed and vetted by the board, teachers, and community members. It was determined that the proposed design was the most cost effective design that addresses district needs.
The main goal of the board of education is to get current students onto the main floor so that educational opportunities are accessible by all on one level. Students with special needs or accessibility issues will have the same access to programs and services as all other students. The space on the second floor can be used by central office administration, support staff (paras), small group instruction, and as a flexible space for potential growth if needed in the future.
Drop off and pick up will be very similar to what it is today. There are ongoing discussions about the best practices for utilizing certain entrances and drop off/pick up areas to improve the overall process.
Building site and construction efficiency limits the ability to make sure all classrooms have windows. There are design options to bring in natural light for adjoining classrooms and other solutions to improve lighting.
Much time and planning has gone into a project that addresses safety and security concerns, provides additional learning space on the main floor accessible to all students, and provides for the needs or our current students with room for potential growth. If the bond fails it could be run again in 2025 unless a legislative bill that has advanced out of Education Committee (LB878) would pass then it would have to wait to be run in November of 2026.
Question:
If the bond passes do you feel you will stay with in the budget or will this be like when they did the bond for the practice gym and went way over budget.
Answer:
The board followed state statute to select and engage a design-build team to help us determine an ‘all in’ bond amount to complete the project. This team includes an architect and a contractor. Wilkins Architecture | Design | Planning developed a detailed design concept with necessary program space and square footage. From that design concept, BD Construction created an itemized estimate to provide the district with accurate budget numbers. To do that, BD used current and historical cost data for similar education addition and renovation projects in our region, factoring in inflation. With this information, the school set an “all in” bond amount. After the bond passes, all divisions of work will be put out for bid. The final bond amount cannot exceed $5,450,000.
Question:
So taking away all preschoolers, as they have their same classroom they don’t need another room, their parents have to pay for their learning and care. What is the true growth of K-12 it’s not 31%???
Answer:
The preschool is part of the school district, we take them into account just like every school across the state. Breaking the school district down to K-12 alone would be 20% growth over the past 10 years.
Question:
Why limited it to 10 years? The school previously has had much higher enrollment and there was only one teacher per grade. The need for the additional space is because the school now has two teachers per grade.
Answer:
The school currently has 3 roving teachers. These teachers are hired on a yearly basis on 1 year contracts to account for the larger class sizes. We currently have 3 grade levels that have 29, 30, and 31 students in them. The district decided to hire roving teachers to accommodate for the large class size. Please refer to the student enrollment history released last week and see that the current 344 student enrollment is the largest on record.
Question:
I agree with the other two posts. There are never 344 students in the building because of pre-school being 1/2 day, and since they are self contained in one room the actual number is 308 students.
Answer:
Please refer to the answers on the other two posts.
Question:
Why does the board try to skew the community by showing the attendance numbers which include pre-school numbers which are actually only half day so you are actually counting them twice?
Answer:
We keep attendance for all students. See chart below of numbers with only half of the preschoolers taken into account compared to taking attendance regularly. Note that regardless of how these are factored, the attendance numbers are growing.
Attendance taken for each student:
Year, Pre School, K-12, Total
2023-2024, 36, 308, 344
2022-2023, 36, 299, 335
2021-2022, 37, 277, 314
2020-2021, 31, 273, 304
2019-2020, 39, 260, 299
2 preschool attendances counting as 1 attendance:
Year, Pre School, K-12, Total
2023-2024, 18, 308, 326
2022-2023, 18, 299, 317
2021-2022, 18.5, 277, 295.5
2020-2021, 15.5, 273, 288.5
2019-2020, 19.5, 260, 279.5
Question:
Is there a possibility of adding skylight or natural lighting of any form to the interior classrooms. In addition to creating several new interior classrooms if I understand the current design it will also eliminate the sunlight exposure on the southern elementary rooms as well. Numerous studies suggest lack of sunlight to affect mental health and mood.
Answer:
Yes, there is the possibility of adding some type of natural lighting to what would become the internal classrooms through either the implementation of skylights, clerestory windows, solatubes or some other means. These items will be considered in more detail should the bond election be successful and the project moves forward.
Question:
Was there plans discussed to add an elevator so the second floor would be accessible to all like SEM school did?
Answer:
Yes, the addition of an elevator was considered, but after careful consideration by the Board of Education other means to create accessible facilities was pursued.
Question:
As a mother of a disabled child I think it is wrong to keep the students at mosaic segregated from the rest of the school. There will be room for them, correct?
Answer:
A contract renewal to have the Mosaic students remain in the facility for another year is pending board approval. This facility is already set up with equipment and safety for the students and is the most adequate space for them.
Question:
Does the growth include the students at Mosaic? Does the growth also include the preschool that has been around for the last 10 years or so?
Answer:
No, the growth does not include the students at Mosaic. Preschool is included in the growth.
Question:
How does this impact Axtell North facility? Will they now be on the South campus?
Answer:
The proposed expansion to the main facility doesn’t affect the North campus. The North campus is currently best equipped to provide an effective learning environment for its students, and it will continue to serve this purpose for the foreseeable future.
Question:
A) If current growth levels remain steady, or potentially have a slight increase due to Kearney’s rapid growth, how many years would this building expansion suffice? B) Repeating the above question but with the added potential of the Axtell North students needing to be in the main facility taking up the new large classroom?
Answer:
Adding Axtell North students to the main building is not being discussed at this time. Both Mosaic and Axtell Community believe that the best educational opportunity for the North students is at Mosaic. At this time there has been nothing discussed about having the Mosaic students attend here. There is no way to predict exactly the growing potential of Axtell School based off of our most recent census report. However, though not ideal, the overflow would be the 3 classrooms remaining upstairs. Currently the plan for the 3 upstairs classrooms are administration offices, para educator workroom, conference room, and student center for added instruction.
Question:
One of the speakers referenced the possibility of Axtell North potentially needing to use the larger new classroom which has restrooms in it during the schools open house. It would seem that it has in fact been discussed.
Regardless of that, the question asked was based upon current growth levels continuing, how long would the current expansion plans still be adequate for the number of students that would end up being.
Answer:
With the three upstairs spaces and the new seven classrooms we predict this will be adequate for the length of the 20-year bond. The three upstairs spaces are currently assigned as offices, workrooms, and conference rooms. The upstairs space will be easily acceptable to quick change for overflow reasons in the future.
Question:
Q: A lot of new houses have been built in recent years. Aren’t they providing a lot of extra property tax?
Answer:
Once the TIF expires the development will become part of the district’s valuation used to pay the bond issue back which will reduce the tax impact of the bond on others.
Question:
Unfortunately I needed to leave info meeting #1 early. Something I heard repeated by a teacher, admin, board members, and the design team is what I perceived as a minimal spend thought process, or “I could get by with”…, or “tried for the smallest bond.”. Ultimately my question is, Should we be doing more? I consider two areas of our school near & dear. 1) Science, because after scoring a 36 on the science portion of my ACT test decades ago, that was the career path I initially headed in. The HS science room effectively looked the same as it did those decades ago. Are we able to teach modern science with potentially outdated equipment? Do we have the space to effectively conduct labs & experiments? We will soon be 20 minutes away from a state of the art health education center at UNK. Do our students have the science technology & space needed to put them in the upper levels of preparedness for such a facility? 2) Industrial Technology – moreso my actual career path. As AI replaces many jobs that not long ago were considered lucrative, and the undeniable need for trade level career workers, do we have modern equipment and space needed for students to excel in this teaching environment? Do we have modern welding equipment? Multi axis mills or high end machining equipment? Building Information Modeling? Automotive equipment? These are just two areas/subjects where I feel we should be wanting to push our students with the latest & greatest. Some subjects can be taught in a 50 year old room. Some shouldn’t be. Returning to my question of if should we be doing more, if an extra $1M on the bond is only going to add approximately $1.40 per month on $100k of valuation, should we be doing more? Passing a bond on top of a bond is a harder sell than passing one slightly bigger one initially. I applaud you for being conservative spenders and I support adding to our facility but I sincerely wonder if we should be doing more.
Answer:
The bond amount was carefully considered and decided on by the school board with two main priorities in mind: to provide our students and public with the safest learning environment while staying fiscally responsible to our patrons.
1. The admin and school board are discussing the science needs. This project will take place after the bond either passes or fails. We currently have 2 small science rooms, the plan is to take the wall out and upgrade that facility using funds outside the bond funds.
2. We are taking the necessary steps to incorporate AI with our school. We will be cautious with those steps. We do not offer automotive currently. We have upgraded our shop facilities. We purchased a building just a handful of years ago and upgraded that facility. Now we are upgrading the equipment needed to educate our students. FFA is also housed in the same building and is excelling with that program as well along with our shop enrollment.
Question:
Can you give an overview of our opt-in numbers? Of the 31% increase in the school population, how many of those are opted in?
Answer:
Below are our records of the option program beginning in 2011-12 school year. Projections for 2024-25 look to be in the 40’s.
2011-12 = 2
2012-13 = 3
2013-14 = 7
2014-15 = 7
2015-16 = 8
2016-17 = 11
2017-18 = 17
2018-19 = 18
2019-20 = 28
2020-21 =38
2021-22 = 37
2022-23 = 36
2023-24 = 38
Of the 31% population increase in the last 10 years, opt-in students cover 11% of that increase.
*The majority of the school districts in the state have students opting-in and opting-out. The districts that have a positive number of opt-in students receive some assistance in state aid. Those districts that have more opt-out students than opt-in do not get penalized financially. Axtell Community School has an outstanding academic record and we receive many opt-in requests annually.
Question:
What year was preschool added?
Answer:
The 2016-2017 school year. Preschool numbers prior to the 2016-17 school year were preschool age students in our school district receiving special education services at ESU 11 in Holdrege.
Question:
If you’re trying to make this a more secure school WHY WOULD YOU PUT IN ALL WINDOWS?. Not one of your better ideas as this defeats the purpose of security.
And what construction company are you looking
At???
Answer:
The windows will have a bullet-resistant film on them and will be virtually indestructible.
The Board of Education followed state statute to select a design-build team, which includes our architect and construction company. First, the school publicly advertised for interested firms to provide a letter of interest. Then, those firms were asked to submit a proposal. Finally, the board interviewed the firms that provided proposals. Wilkins ADP and BD Construction, both out of Kearney, were selected as the best fit based on criteria, experience and price.
As the school’s design-build team, Wilkins and BD helped the school put together a scope of work and detailed budget, examining a variety of options until the current bond proposal was chosen as the best, most economical approach. This work determined our bond amount. Following successful bond passage, the project will be bid. Local subcontractors like electricians, framers, plumbers, masons, etc. will have an opportunity to bid on work for the project.
Question:
Inside of the entrance vestibule it looks like the west side would separate the public from the admissions people. Could we have that particular wall specified with bullet resistant glass and panels to ensure safety for admissions personnel?
Answer:
Bullet proof construction is both part of the safety security grant written by Mr. Gregory and can be added into plans provided by the architect (Wilkins ADP). Security remains priority in discussions and will continue to be throughout the project, contingent on the success of the bond.
Question:
In the past 15 years how many security and safety issues have there been at the front doors?
Answer:
In the past 15 years, there have been no security of safety issues at the front doors.
Question:
Will the children at Mosaic get to be in the building and with their peers?
Answer:
At this time the students at Axtell North will remain in the Kidron Building on the Mosaic campus as per the lease agreement between ACS and Mosaic. Axtell North is currently best equipped to provide an effective learning environment for our students, and it will continue to serve our students for the foreseeable future.
Question:
On the interior classrooms, would it pose a safety risk in an emergency situation to only have one door per classroom, with no internal or external windows available to serve as an alternative exit?
Thank you!
Answer:
Since the school building is protected by a fully automatic fire sprinkler system both the International Building Code and the Life Safety Code (current editions) allow for and permit windowless classrooms with one exit door provided that the occupant load for those classrooms does not exceed 50 occupants. None of the classrooms that are slated to be windowless classrooms will have anywhere close to that number of occupants. In addition, there are numerous other school districts across the state of Nebraska that have the same condition.