Coldwater schools will pitch new levy

COLDWATER- While Coldwater schools are technically financially stable at the moment, more revenue is necessary to handle numerous unfunded priorities, school board member Jack Waite told about 15 people at a district public forum Thursday night.

School district voters will see a five-year, additional 0.5% traditional income tax on the Nov. 5 general election ballot. The levy would bump up the existing 0.5% traditional income tax to 1%.

The 0.5% traditional income tax levy was first passed by voters in 1999 and currently generates about $1 million annually, according to district treasurer Jenn McCoy.

If passed, the increased tax would raise an additional $1,304,674 for current expense purposes, she had said.

A previous levy proposal was shot down by 71% of voters at the March 19 primary election would have replaced the 0.5% traditional income tax with a 1.75% earned income tax, applying only to employee compensation and net earnings from self-employment.

Since its failure, the district has been working to communicate the potentially dire need for extra funds should any of the repairs or upgrades become an issue for the district, which officials have stated could happen at any time.

A "pro-levy" committee made up of private citizens was created. The district has now held three public forums for voters on the matter, capped kindergarten enrollment to 140 students and added additional school fees.

In addition to a number of ongoing priorities that are either financed by grants, donations or existing school funds, the district has a laundry list of capital improvements to make which officials have dubbed "unfunded priorities."

Public tours of the school building held in June and more recently on Thursday night by school officials featured just a small fraction of the school's unfunded priorities, said superintendent Doug Mader.

The tours highlighted areas needing addressed such as worn-out middle school carpet, cracked bricks on the school exterior, aging gymnasium floors, old windows sealed shut due to leaks, a near-obsolete fleet of school vehicles, corroding cast iron pipes and many other parts that will need attention in the near future.

School officials reported on Wednesday that the current unfunded, past due infrastructure priorities total $99,000. The district's unfunded infrastructure priorities that could become a problem at any time total $1.68 million. Technology needs for 2025 are $268,970 and yearly/any time instructional needs are $659,066.

Mader explained that the unfunded infrastructure priorities that are due "any time" are issues that have gone past their lifetime and "we're lucky they're still working."

"It could fail at any moment within the next three years because we have the manuals, our maintenance programs, the people that come in inspect things, they give us the lifespan of certain items," he said.

Waite said board members are holding the forums because they realized in the lead up to the failed levy in March that they didn't do enough.

"We didn't provide an opportunity (for communication). We had a lot of conversations in school board meetings for years about the things we needed to do," he said. "But we never did this forum or other opportunity to express that to the community."

He added that board members have realized not communicating more last time was a mistake, which is something they are trying to rectify.

The levy committee has set up a website with the district's financial and levy information, where residents can send questions directly to Mader's email.

"All I can do is give them facts," Mader said. "The levy website is pro levy. We cannot be pro levy. The board can, when they're not in a board meeting because they're private citizens. I can when I'm a private citizen, but very carefully because my clock really is about 24 hours a day on duty."

Mader described the levy committee's website as a "one-stop shop."

"The only thing that's not on this website, and we may consider putting some of that, (is) teacher pay stuff … but the cash operating days is on there, expenditures are on there, everything's on there. There's also academic achievement."