School mailing out bond ballots

For nearly two decades, Fair-Mont-Egan School teachers and trustees have assessed the school’s needs.

A larger gym.

A computer lab that doesn’t double as a hallway.

A connection between the school’s buildings.

Those and other needs have changed little since 1993, despite fluctuations in enrollment and the economy. And now, due in large part to a federal grant that provides zero to very low interest on bonds, Fair-Mont-Egan has decided to move forward with building plans that address those needs.

Today, school officials will mail bond ballots to every registered voter in the district, asking taxpayers to approve a $1.9 million bond request.

Signed ballots must be returned to the district office by April 6.

If voters approve the bond request, annual property taxes on a home with a taxable market value of $100,000 would increase by about $92. Property taxes would increase by about $184 a year on a home with a taxable market value of $200,000.

Those payments would decrease over the term of the bonds because Fair-Mont-Egan has received a Qualified School Construction Bond

grant. Instead of making annual payments on the bonds to a bank, the payments will be held by the Flathead County Treasurer and invested at the board’s direction. The entire bond amount is repaid at the end of the term.

The investment yield will be used to lower taxpayers’ burden; school officials estimate that by the final year of the bonds — probably 15 to 17 years from now — the annual property tax contribution to the bond repayment would be cut in half.

Cayuse Prairie was awarded a similar grant in 2009, which helped persuade voters in November to approve the district’s $1.95 million bond request to build a new gym.

Fair-Mont-Egan also received a $25,000 grant from the Department of Commerce to help with planning and design costs, and the district has applied for a project grant available through federal stimulus programs. The grant’s amount hasn’t been determined yet; the district won’t learn if it has received the grant until after the election is over.

Fair-Mont-Egan has nearly $100,000 to apply toward construction costs, according to school officials, and school officials hope a Flathead Electric Roundup for Safety Grant will help defer safety costs during construction.

Construction plans include a new gym, administrative offices connecting the school’s two buildings and at least two new classrooms. The money also would pay for remodeling, including expanding the library and computer lab, creating quiet tutoring spaces for special education and Title I students, creating a band and music room and adding storage space.

A central kitchen may be incorporated for before- and after-school programs and to create adequate lunchroom space.

Some voters have expressed frustration about possibly shouldering the tax burden for out-of-district families who send their children to Fair-Mont-Egan. About 38 percent of children at the school do not live in the district.

To address that concern, trustees chose a building plan close to the bonding capacity of Fair-Mont-Egan’s in-district families. The district’s full bonding capacity is $2.6 million.

The last bond issue, valued at $249,000, was paid off this year, so Fair-Mont-Egan is debt-free.

For further information about the bond request, call district clerk Susan Clanton at 755-2038.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.