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WILLIAMSBURG — The Williamsburg Community School District is asking voters to approve the issuance of bonds to renovate the junior-senior high school building and Mary Welsh Elementary School.
The question will be on the ballot during the Nov. 5 General Election. A supermajority vote of 60% is needed to approve any bond issue or bond taxes.
The $22.3 million project will focus on kitchen, cafeterias, commons, industrial technology and agricultural education spaces n the high school and a new wing for Mary Welsh.
School Superintendent Chad Garber took residents on a tour of the school last month to explain the District’s renovation plans if the bond issue passes next month.
Garber showed residents the kitchen and storage area adjacent to the existing cafeteria.
“This particular footprint is confining,” said Garber. It was build in 1969 and doesn’t fit the current needs of the school.
“We’re getting back to more whole food preparation,” said Garber. The renovation would move food preparation into what is now the cafeteria.
The new plan would expand the commons area into a couple of existing classrooms, so the school could run two shifts for lunch rather than three, freeing up more time for education.
“It’s a space that hasn’t been updated in decades,” said Garber.
Residents toured the industrial tech area of the school, and Principal Lynell O’Connor explained the woods shop class, the welding courses offered at the school through Kirkwood Community College and the new fabrication course.
Beyond the woods shop are 12 welding bays, and adjacent to that is the metals workshop next to the agricultural classes. The school also offers junior high tech lab, coding and computer science, said O’Connor.
“We can average up to 15 in a class, just for supervision” said O’Connor, and the school offers four blocks of class time each day.
“Seventh grade is huge this year,” said O’Connor, and eighth grade has 20-28 in each exploratory industrial arts class.
“We have some really, really nice equipment here,” said Garber of the agricultural education and industrial tech work areas, but the space is restrictive. It’s not large enough for the projects teachers and employers want students to take on.
Other areas in the school aren’t being used efficiently, said Garber. The renovation will fix that.
In addition, the school will make heating, ventilation and air-conditioning improvements and replace some pool equipment.
By vacating a second cafeteria, in junior high wing, the District will make more space for the instrumental music program, adding 800 square feet and climate-controlled space adjacent to the auditorium.
The facility plan will add a fifth and sixth grade wing to Mary Welsh Elementary School. That will allow current classrooms to be expanded for other grade levels.
Phase 2 will focus on the career and tech education center, will move family and consumer science to the kitchen area and will add LED lighting to Mary Welsh Elementary, Garber said.
“We saved tens of thousands [of dollars] when we went to LED lighting [in the high school].”
The bond issue will raise the total property tax levy to the maximum allowed — $2.70 per $1,000 of taxable value. However, the net increase will be only $1.83 because residents in the district will pay 87 cents in 2025 for the new gymnasium — a levy that will end in 2025.
“We’re making a request to continue that,” said Garber.
The district is paying off the debt for the new gymnasium early, said Matthew Gillaspie, of public finance group Piper Sandler, saving taxpayers $844,756 in interest.
“There’s only so much [property tax] we can generate,” said Garber. The school board has a history of trying to manage that rate.
The district has levied the maximum $2.70 twice before — in 2021 and in 2023. In 2018 the debt service levy was only $1, and in 2019 only 96 cents. In 2020 it was $1.32 and in 2024 $1.18
If the bond issue is not passed in November, tax rates will go down by 87 cents, Garber said.
Garber asked that residents calculate accurately what the sale of general obligation bonds will do to their taxes. The rate is paid on taxable value, not on market value or assessed value.
Assessed value is determined by the county assessor, while market value is determined by the open real estate marketplace
Taxpayers have to consider the 46.34% rollback and any credits they receive, such as the homestead credit.
A residential property assessed at $100,000 will pay $6.33 more per month, or $75.93 more per year, if the measure passes, according to an example from Piper Sandler.
Commercial properties with assessed values of $150,00 will pay an extra $127.21 per year or $10.60 more per month.
Ag property in Iowa County is valued at an average of $1,635 per acre as of January of 2023. With a rollback of 71.83%, the change in annual taxes with the bond issue is $2.15 per year or 18 cents a month, according to Piper Sandler figures.