In 2007, the Fort Wayne Community Schools board asked residents to approve a $500million plan to upgrade some of the district’s aging buildings.
The measure failed during a dueling petition drive, sending supporters back to the drawing board.
Now the board is coming back to taxpayers with a Plan B – a $119 million proposal they say focuses only on essential needs. Voters within the school district will be able to weigh in on the plan when they head to the polls May 8.
District staff returned to the topic of building upgrades last fall, identifying up to $242 million worth of necessary renovations in the district’s buildings, many of which were built in the 1950s and 1960s. After a series of public meetings, the board whittled the plan down to $119 million worth of renovations at 36 buildings in most need of repair.
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The majority of the plan, $100 million, will address major infrastructure needs, including heating and ventilating systems, window systems, safety systems and other problems at 10 schools.
An additional $7 million will cover the cost of catching up on roof projects at 28 buildings. The rest will be used for window replacement, masonry repair and installing air conditioning in buildings that already have capacity for the systems.
The most expensive upgrade would be at Snider High School.
Officials hope to spend $40.2 million to replace heating and cooling systems, replace windows, restore masonry and bring handrails and stairwells up to current code, among other projects.
If approved by voters in May, the building project would run from 2013 through 2016 and could cost the average homeowner a property tax increase of $27 a year, according to district officials. The plan would fall outside the property tax caps, meaning the cost would be shared by all taxpayers in the district and wouldn’t increase the tax-cap loss for other units of government.
The ballot question will ask voters to decide whether the district should issue bonds or enter into a lease to finance the project. Indiana gives governments the option of pursuing both methods. District officials said they would likely enter into the lease option, since unlike bonds, entering into a lease does not limit the amount of debt the district can hold.
“It’s really not any different than doing a bond,” FWCS Chief Financial Officer Kathy Friend said. “You still borrow the money and pay it back.”
The question says the project would “increase the property tax rate for debt service by $0.1428 per $100 of assessed valuation.” But district officials said that since some of the district’s debt is set to retire, the actual amount will be closer to $0.10.
Board members hope that, after the district completes the first round of projects in 2016, the public will approve all or part of the remaining $123 million in renovations.
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