$9.4 million school bond goes to Park City voters

Undeterred by a narrow school bond election loss last year, the Park City Schools Board of Trustees is bringing back another proposal to address overcrowding in their aging facility.
The plan is to build part of a combined elementary and high school on school-owned land about three blocks east of the current school and finish the entire school project sometime in the future.
The school board voted on July 28 to run the $9.4 million bond election by mail-in ballot on Sept. 27. Ballots will go out on Sept. 9 and will include two measures – a $5.6 million bond for the elementary district and a $3.7 million bond for the high school district.
“The district will not be able to move forward if only the elementary or high school bond requests pass,” Park City School Superintendent Dan Grabowska said. “We need them both to pass in order to make this a reality.”
The tax impact on a home with a market value of $100,000 would be about $133 for the elementary district, $89 for the high school district and $223 for the two combined.
Grabowska cites “historically low” interest rates now and the prospect of higher construction costs in the future as reasons for going forward with the proposal at this time. The current school is overcrowded and old, with maintenance costs rising every year, Grabowska said.
“We need to do something – we’re bursting at the seams,” he said. “Otherwise, we’ll be looking at going to trailers for classrooms.”
The school district bought about 20 acres of land bordered by Second and Fourth Avenues Southeast about 13 years ago. Taxpayers paid off the bonds for the land in 2011.
But Park City is primarily a bedroom community with no industrial and little commercial tax base to support local schools. A $7 million bond election to expand the current school lost by 50 votes in April 2015. A change in state law last year now allows the school district to borrow up to $16 million, which provided the school board with an opportunity to come up with a new plan.
School elections in Park City can be dramatically close. The May 3 levy election to raise a $500,000 building reserve over 15 years lost by eight votes in the elementary district and by 12 votes in the high school district.
A second issue on the May 3 ballot to raise $200,000 over 10 years for computers and related equipment passed by eight votes in the elementary district and by two votes in the high school district.
Those close elections helped support the school board’s decision to go forward with another bond election, Grabowska said.
If the $9.4 million bond request is approved, the district will work on finalizing the project’s design.
The plan at this time is to build classrooms and offices for grades 4-6 with space to expand the wing east in the future for the rest of the elementary school. The proposed plan also calls for a new gymnasium for grades 4-12 that is large enough for district tournaments, a new district-wide kitchen and adequate parking for school games and concerts.
Space on the school property will be available to build classrooms in the future for grades 7-12 in a wing south of the elementary school, according to a feasibility plan.
Additional parking and football, track, softball and soccer fields could be built in the future on the same property south of the new school.
The district chose not to build separate elementary or high schools because the bonding capacity for the elementary and high school districts is about $8.5 million each – not enough for a $12 million elementary school or a $15 million high school.
“The plan is a facility that is shared by both high school and elementary students and provides a starting position for the long-range plans to add the rest of the elementary and the high school in the foreseeable future,” Grabowska said.
The proposal calls for a 20-year bond. Grabowska says it could take two more bond elections, each 15 years apart so the previous bond can be paid down, to complete the new school.
“We’re looking at 30 to 50 years,” he said.
Voters will have a chance to learn about the proposal during a cookout in the school parking lot on Friday, Aug. 19 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The district will hold their annual open house at the school on Wednesday, Aug. 24, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. for students, teachers, parents, the PTA and other supporters. The school board will hold their regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16, at 7 p.m. in the school’s multi-purpose room.