About 45 members of the public came out Monday evening to the Geary Fieldhouse to learn more about the proposed bond issue the school district is floating. An estimated 45 more were viewing the meeting online.
Superintendent Sean Buchanan said the meeting was to answer questions the community may have about the bond question, asking for $5 million for school construction.
The district knew, Buchanan said, that there would be an insurance payout because of the March 2025 fire that devastated the high school campus. But it also knew there might not be enough for a whole new campus.
That was a sticking point, he said, because roughly half the district’s 260 children are housed in a building – the elementary school – that is not up to code. One of the biggest issues is that some of the classrooms are downstairs with no elevator access, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
“When we found out that we could possibly house them in one campus, we thought that was something to look at,” Buchanan said.
The elementary school is a 1960s era building, and when the state fire marshal’s office visited Geary after the fire at the high school, they looked at the other buildings. For a time the elementary was grandfathered in, but that status was eliminated by the fire marshal in 2018. The cost to renovate the elementary school and bring it up to today’s standards would be more than the cost to rebuild the high school.
The district, Buchanan said, is working to hold the line on costs of the rebuild. He pointed to the remaining skeleton frame of the burned building. State statute prohibits the reuse of foundations, so if the skeleton were taken down, the foundation would have to be removed and a new one poured, driving the costs up another million and a half dollars.
“We are trying to be as economical as possible,” Buchanan said. “When we put it all together we could have a new school that’s safe for everyone. And because most of it is cash, the finance charges are kept to a minimum>” The new building would keep the elementary students segregated from junior high and high school pupils by electronic doors that require an adult to activate. The only time the students would mingle, Buchanan said, is if the administration wants them together, such as an assembly or bad weather. There will be no additional costs for safe rooms, since the new addition, unharmed by the fire, has safe rooms with capacity for all students.
The cost to property owners is about 13.6% additionally on their tax bills, or $13.62 per hundred dollars property value.
School board member Afton Jameson pointed out that if the schools in Geary cease to operate and the students are absorbed by other schools, the property owners will have that school district’s tax level attached to their property.
Comparing apples to apples, Geary’s millage, should the bond pass, will adjust to 72 mils on the Blaine County side and slightly lower on the Canadian County side.
Calumet’s millage is 83; Watonga is 103: Hinton is 103 and Hydro is 105.
Members of the audience remarked that a consolidation of the campuses would make the students safer because they will no longer have to cross the road to the library or cafeteria and the playground would be within the walls of the schools, on a courtyard. The new playground equipment at the elementary school could be reinstalled at the new site. That equipment was purchased with COVID dollars.
Buchanan said the district is working with the city utilities and gas supplier to relocate a gas line that formerly ran under the school and the town’s electrical supplier has been on site to help locate lines for three phase power.
New construction would, Buchanan said, lower the school’s consumption of electricity, water and natural gas, which in turn would place less of a burden on the town’s grid as well as lower the cost of heating and cooling the school.
That election will take place April 7, with early voting 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday and Friday April 2-3 at the Blaine County Election Board, in the basement of the county courthouse on Weigle Avenue in Watonga.
Regular voting on April 7 will be at your designated polling location from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. The deadline to register to vote has already passed.
A bond issue requires a supermajority of 60% for passage.
If passed, the money should start flowing by the end of May and construction could be completed in 12-18 months.
There is no contingency to rebuild just the high school if the bond fails, Buchanan said. “We (the school board) would come back to the community to see what they want us to do. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, to get a new school for $5 million. But I work for you” he said.