NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Buhler USD 313 staff and Board President Greg Lackey outlined the scope of the upcoming facilities bond in the district on Friday.
"We've been talking about this for probably a year to a year and a half," USD 313 BOE President Greg Lackey said. "With the Ad Astra Academy and all of that coming, we knew we didn't have the space, so we started looking at options. We started looking at the south end of town. We've got a service center down there now. Does that have the space to adequately house this and give us our needs? We quickly decided that did not. We actually looked at the other Gregory building. Could we move over there and do that? Again, didn't like the idea, primarily of being split on both ends of town. We had the idea presented to us to build this facility right next to the existing Burkholder Administration Center. The more we talked about it and the more we looked at it, it just made more sense."
A public vote for USD 313 patrons will take place in person on April 4th, 2023, with advance voting starting March 27th. In addition to the administration center expansion and Ad Astra Academy space, enhancements are planned to the district's elementary playgrounds and an indoor athletic facility. Tax rates should be able to be held level, even with the new bonding.
"In 2020 and in 2021, we did two different bond refinancings," said Director of Finance Shane Hecox. "In 2020, that dropped our interest rate from 4% to 2.89%. In 2021, did another refinancing when rates got better and dropped it down to 1.31%. That's factor number one that is in play to help this project. Factor number two is valuation growth. Over the last 10 years, our valuation has grown at an average rate of 3.2%."
Between those two factors, the board believes that the additional bonding can be paid without increasing the Bond and Interest portion of the district's mill levy, assuming valuations continue to go up. It's important to note that projects like this one cannot be paid for through any other part of the school finance formula.
"This is for, basically, the erection of a new facility," Lackey said. "Through Capital Outlay, we would never have the ability to be able to build a project like this."
The overall mill levy is determined by the general fund, supplemental general fund, capital outlay, and bond and interest.
Please read the full information on the issue at https://www.usd313.org/page/raising-the-standard-bond-issue.
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