Watonga Superintendent Says Bond Will Build ‘Sense of Pride’ in Community

WATONGA – Ever since he arrived in Watonga in summer 2021, Superintendent Kyle Hilterbran has brought enthusiasm to his position as he oversees the day-to-day at Watonga Public Schools.

In early February, Hilterbran will face his greatest challenge yet – convincing at least 60% of Watongans to OK a slight property-tax increase to help finance a capital improvement project for the district.

Projects included in the bond would include a new gymnasium for basketball, wrestling and assembly events; a new cafeteria at the elementary school; high school wrestling-room improvements; and a new facility at the football field that would include concessions, restrooms, locker rooms and a weight room.

Hilterbran says the district will also improve its parking lots and create STEM labs – science, technology, engineering and math spaces with virtual reality, robotics, coding and other equipment – on both the elementary and middle/high school campuses if the bond passes.

The bond’s total price tag is $19,995,000, not including the district’s contribution for ancillary projects. Last week the Watonga school board approved a new teacher parking lot for $230,000.

“This is a capital improvement plan – not just for our school, but for our community,” Hilterbran told the Watonga Republican last week. “If we make this commitment together to invest in our facilities, then the money our school currently has, we can invest back into teachers.”

Watonga’s current gymnasium is nearly 50 years old, Hilterbran said, and has no air conditioning or showers. The last time Watonga was due to host the Three Rivers Tournament, he said the tournament was held in Kingfisher instead because Watonga lacked suitable facilities.

“That doesn’t bring much pride to your community,” Hilterbran said, “when you have to go use somebody else’s gym to host tournaments.”

Out at the football field, Watonga Public Schools currently does not own any restroom facilities – it uses the city’s on game days – and concession stand lines regularly back up. Additionally, there are currently no locker room facilities for the baseball or softball teams, Hilterbran said. The new structure there would include all of that, and be located behind the field’s east end zone.

Finally, Hilterbran argues that it would be cost-prohibitive to remodel the current elementary cafeteria. He says the district will not only create a bigger cafeteria, but also a new pickup/drop-off lane that will ease traffic around the school.

The old cafeteria space would become a STEM lab. At the middle school, Hilterbran plans to put the STEM lab in the current meeting room space where the district conducts school board meetings.

“The jobs that our kids are going to be working in when they graduate have not even been created,” he said. “So in order to prepare our kids for the workforce, they need to be able to play with that handson technology and understand how it works, so we’re on top of it when they graduate.”

Hilterbran says the tax impact of the bond will be much more modest than 2014’s new high school proposal. Since then, climbing property values have reset the rate back to where it was before that bond passed, Hilterbran said.

“In this bond, we’re asking for only a small percentage of that – 7.49%,” Hilterbran said. “This would take the tax rate to 25 mills, which is the same or lower to other communities of similar size in our area.”

The district’s financial advisers prepared a chart about the bond, showing the potential tax impacts for properties of various values. The chart says that Watongans with a $500 annual tax burden would instead pay $537.45 if the bond passes – an annual increase of $37.45, or $3.12 per month.

Blaine County Treasurer Donna Hoskins’ office reviewed the chart for the Watonga Republican and said it appears to accurately represent the tax impacts of the bond. Online, reactions to the bond proposal have been largely posi t i v e , though there are of course residents skeptical of a tax increase or the necessity of new athletics facilities. Hilterbran is inviting all community members with questions or concerns to visit the school board office on Tuesday, Jan. 25, for a Q&A beginning at 5 p.m. Officials will move to the gym when the basketball games begin that evening.

Hilterbran envisions that new school facilities will help attract businesses, investment and opportunity to Watonga. “I think it’s important that we take pride in our community,” he said. “This is going to build a sense of pride in our community. This is going to bring us together.”

More information about the bond proposal is available at watongapublicschools.com under the “2022 Bond” tab.