Muleshoe ISD
Board
Meeting
Bond Election
On March 3, 2006,
the Board of Trustees met to consider holding
a Bond Election.
Bob Finney, Chairman of the Citizens’ Facilities Task Force,
presented the recommendations of the Committee to the Board:
Mr. Finney informed the Board
that 32 citizens and 8 administrators had spent countless hours in meetings and
in time outside of meetings analyzing the condition of the school’s facilities
and possible solutions to the present situation.
He said that Muleshoe has passed 13 out of 15 bond
elections over the years since 1922.
Many of these were passed during very difficult economic times. He noted that in the early 1950’s, all of the
school’s campuses and most of the churches in the community were built. He added that it had been 43 years since the
last major school construction in Muleshoe, and the committee had identified
several major facility needs of the district.
Mr. Finney stated that it was the unanimous recommendation
from the Citizens’ Committee for the Board of
Trustees to call an election for May
13, 2006, to allow the citizenry of Muleshoe to vote on a
referendum to issue $25 million in bonds.
If the bond referendum is successful, the debt service tax rate would be
approximately 37 ˝ cents.
Mr. Finney had an additional recommendation that he said was
critical to the Bond Referendum:
The Citizens’ Committee recommended that if the Bond
Referendum is successful, the Board should try
to access both of the state facility assistance programs available to Muleshoe
ISD. These two separate facility
programs are known as Instructional Facility Allotment (IFA) and Existing Debt
Allotment (EDA).
However, the Board must
covenant with the voters of Muleshoe that in the event that MISD does not receive
funds from the IFA program, MISD will not sell the bonds for that program
(approximately $5 million) and will not raise the debt service taxes by
approximately 7 ˝ cents for the IFA program.
Furthermore, if the legislature does not fund the EDA program
in 2007, MISD would fully repay the bonds sold in 2006 for this program, and
the debt service tax rate would be reduced from the 30 cents for the EDA
program back to zero.
Mr. Finney said the Citizens’ Committee’s recommendations
for the priority of facility needs and their approximate costs were as
follows:
Facilities
Priorities:
(1) Dillman Elementary: Add classrooms; expand the kitchen and
cafeteria – $4 million (2) Muleshoe High
School: Combination
of new building and renovation - $15 million
(3) Watson Jr. High:
Add classrooms, new entrance, and parking on the north side of
campus - $1 million
(4) DeShazo Elementary:
Add classrooms - $1 million
(5) Renovation of major systems at Dillman,
DeShazo, and Watson Jr. High, - $4 million
A motion was made by Cindy Purdy
and seconded by Curtis Shelburne to call for a
May 13, 2006 Bond Election in the amount of $25 million and a Maintenance Tax
Limit Election to modernize the maintenance tax limit. Both are required for the Bond Issue to
pass. Motion carried unanimously.
A motion was made by Thurman Myers and seconded by Nick
Bamert to adopt the following resolution:
The Board covenants with
the voters of Muleshoe that in the event that MISD does not receive funds from
the IFA program, MISD will not sell the bonds for that program (approximately
$5 million) and will not raise the debt service taxes by approximately 7 ˝
cents for the IFA program.
Furthermore, the Board
covenants with the voters of Muleshoe that if the legislature does not fund the
EDA program in 2007, MISD would fully repay the bonds issued and sold in 2006
for this program, and the debt service tax rate would be reduced from the 30
cents for the EDA program back to zero.
This covenant constitutes a contract with the voters which
will bind this Board and future Boards
and such covenant may not be changed or revised.