Bigfork School Board to try bond again

By ALEX STRICKLAND - Bigfork Eagle

After an October election in which a bond for the elementary school passed and one for the high school failed, the Bigfork School Board has decided to try again.

The high school bond — for $11.1 million — was defeated by a margin of 84 votes in October, a slim enough difference to encourage officials to go back to the voters in March.

The board voted unanimously at its Nov. 15 meeting to send the issue back to voters unchanged in a March 4 election.

"The board had a lengthy discussion about the library issue, dollar amounts and alternatives to renovation," said Superintendent Russ Kinzer. "They decided this was the best and only course of action."

Kinzer said the board also discussed many of the other options that members of the community had brought up, including selling the land the school is currently located on and buidling a new school. Those alternatives were not deemed feasible, he said.

In October's bond election there was no organization in the community formed in support or opposition to the bond, Kinzer said, only the superintendent's office giving multiple presentations, tours and producing copius amounts of informational packets. But the office was limited to just that: being informational.

This time a group of concerned parents has formed to advocate the bond issue and try to not only help get information out, but explain why the bond is needed. The group, called CAUSE — Citizen Advocates United for Student Education — is being led by Mary Knoll and she has high hopes for what they can accomplish.

"What we learned from the first one was there's a list as long as your arm of confusion." she said. "The problem was people were either not informed or confused or uncertain about so many pieces of it."

Knoll said as recently as last week she heard of someone who thought the elementary and high school bonds in October were an "either/or" vote and so the voter chose the less expensive option.

"We've got our work cut out for us," she said.

One of the biggest issues was confusion about building a new school, Knoll said, so the group needs to address those answers simply and clealy.

"It's not a band-aid, not a quick fix" she said.

The new election will be a mail-in ballot as in the October bond election. Ballots will be mailed to voters about two and a half weeks prior to that date, according to district business manager Eda Taylor.

Voters will have until 30 days prior to the March 4 polling date to update their information with the County Elections Office, something Taylor said is imperative.

"A frustration in the last election was folks without updated registration," she said. "Folks need to call down to the office."

The mail-in ballots were again chosen because of historically low numbers at the polls and the relatively good response shown in October. About 52 percent of voters cast a ballot in that election, Taylor said.

The other benefit of a mail-in ballot over an election day poll is that there is no minimum number of responents required in a mail-in election.

The October election cost the district about $8,000 in printing and postage costs and Taylor said she expects the March election costs will be similar, despite the slightly reduced postage rate without the elementary school ballot in each envelope.

The board chose the March 4 date because it was as far away as possible from the holidays and the last date the County Election Office would allow a mail-in election because after that the staff are busy preparing for primaries and the general election.

High school construction would include a new common area/cafeteria, a weight room, renovated art and computer rooms as well as a new and enlarged library.

The renovations would have also phased out portable classrooms currently used for 6th graders and high school math classes. Those buildings, designed to be temporary structures, are nine and 18 years old and, according to Kinzer, showing sign of their age.

"The board still believes strongly in the need to improve facilities," he said. "They believe in getting the seriousness of this issue across to folks."

Kinzer said they were encouraged to seek another vote after both Kinzer and other board members had people approach them in the community and encourage them to run the election again.

Kinzer also cited concern about the complicated instruction on how to calculate the amount the bond would increase a homeowner's taxes. That confusion stemmed from terminology involving a home's "market value" and said that for the next election his office would make clarifying and simplifying the calculations a priority.

"We've got to find a way to simplify how to figure taxes," he said.

Opponents of the bond — and they figure to be a silent majority based on the October election — have been largely quiet on the outcome of the election, Kinzer said.

"It's tough to evaluate the outcome of an election," he said. "We knew at the beginning there would be people we couldn't reach, but the board believes that if more informationgets out people will see the serious needs."

Last week a school bond for $7.1 million to build a new middle school in Somers failed by a slim margin.