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Board mulls bond issue
By JORDAN COHEN
VIENNA
Mathews Board of Education is considering another bond issue to finance a new school building, despite overwhelming voter rejection of an issue for a kindergarten-through-12th-grade structure last November.
The proposed building would house either grades six to 12 or seven to 12.
“We have to ask what would appeal to the community,” said Ken Wallace, board president. “I was told that a new building should be more centrally located.”
The board Tuesday discussed several possible locations including King-Graves Road near the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and land adjoining Baker Elementary. Superintendent Lee Seiple admitted that the board faces a difficult task in peresuading voters to support the issue.
“Very few people want to hear that it would cost more to renovate than replace,” Seiple said.
Unlike last year’s $22.5 million bond issue in which the new building would have replaced all four Mathews schools, the board appeared, based on comments during the meeting, to agree that the district should keep Currie Elementary in Fowler and Baker, which is in Vienna.
“People don’t want to lose a building near where they live,” Wallace said.
The current Mathews High School would be replaced, as would Neal Middle School, which is scheduled to close at the end of the 2010-11 school year.
According to a five-year projection released last month by Teri Andrika, district treasurer, Mathews faces a $3 million deficit by the end of school year 2014. The red ink concerned first-term board member Brian Stidham, who said the board may have to include an additional operating levy along with the bond issue at the same time.
“I’m saying we need to have more money before we start operating a new building,” Stidham said. Seiple said he did not know the cost of the new structure but estimated it could be as much as “three-fourths” of the cost of last year’s $22.5 million.
Andrika said Mathews is permitted to borrow $19 million to finance a bond issue. However, because it could need additional money, the board voted to request a designation as a “special-needs district” from the state. State law requires the designation if the board’s debt after bonds are issued exceeds 4 percent of the total value of its taxable property. It becomes effective only if there is a bond issue.
The vote was not unanimous. First-year member Tarin Brown cast the lone no vote without comment.
The board anticipates another meeting later this month to review cost estimates from the superintendent and decide whether to go forward with the bond issue. The state requires a final decision in July.