NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Nickerson-South Hutchinson USD 309 Bond Issue election day is Tuesday.
The proposal is a 9 year, $7.6 million bond. According to the district's bond project FAQ, there are several items to address.
"Quite a few roofing projects need to take place," said USD 309 Superintendent Curtis Nightingale. "There are district wide student safety measures. That includes putting a 3M coating on all of the exterior glass doors for all student attendance centers and then creating secured vestibules inside each one of the buildings, so once someone is buzzed into the building, there's kind of a checkpoint there at the office, before they can go into the rest of the building."
In addition, there are specific projects at Nickerson High for the auditorium, at each of the schools to upgrade restrooms for ADA compliance and construction of two new classrooms at South Hutchinson Elementary.
The bond, if approved, would cost an additional $9.99 per month on a $100,000 home. As a smaller bond, Nightingale is hoping that will help with interest.
"I've seen one that was close to us, in terms of it was about an $8 million bond. I think that one sold at about 3.75% interest," Nightingale said. "I did see one sold last week, it was a little bit more than ours, I want to say it was a $16 or $18 million bond. It sold at 3.25%. That was on a 20 year term. I'm being told that the shorter your term, the better interest rate you're going to get, so I'm hoping to come in at a pretty low interest rate, should it pass."
The USD 309 school board looked at lots of options before coming to the final bond scope.
"Those few people that I have spoken to that have been negative about it, it's a wide band of excuse, but none of it has been related to the types of things we're wanting to spend money on," Nightingale said. "It's more related to a philosophy about never voting for tax increases or those types of things, but it's not been related to, we feel like you're being frivolous in this bond or I can't support that particular item being done. I think we've done a good job of trying to get that piece covered. At the end, it's going to come down to what the voters are comfortable doing."
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