Hillsboro R-3 School District
Question 1
What it is: Shift of 40 cents from the debt service levy to operating levy.
Vote needed to pass: Simple majority.
What it will cost: The tax shift would not raise the tax levy, but taxes levied to pay bond debt expire after the bonds are paid off, so transferring the 40 cents into the general operating fund would make that tax permanent. If the shift is approved, the operating levy would increase to an estimated $3.7746 per $100 assessed valuation, and the district’s debt service levy would decrease to $0.7933 per $100 assessed valuation.
Question 2
What it is: a $25 million bond issue extension.
Vote needed to pass: Four-sevenths majority.
What it will cost: Passage would not affect the district’s current tax rate of $4.5679 per $100 assessed valuation, but would extend the district’s bond debt by no more than eight years, from 2037 to approximately 2045.
What they’re about: Superintendent Jon Isaacson said the propositions are intended to provide funding for both immediate and long-range needs.
He said immediate needs is to install turn lanes and a crosswalk at the intersection of Leon Hall Parkway and Business 21, as well as build a sidewalk along Leon Hall Parkway to improve safety.
Isaacson said another improvement needed is building a new athletic facility on the high school campus rather than the football team having to practice at the field behind the intermediate school.
“We also need an athletic facility that includes locker rooms, a wrestling facility and a weight-training facility to replace the existing fieldhouse behind the intermediate,” Isaacson said. “The old football field would be repurposed.”
District officials also want to replace the grass on the district’s baseball field with turf and renovate the front entrance to the high school to make it more secure.
He said vocational buildings at the district’s Bridle Ridge Acres farm would also be built.
He said the 40-cent shift would be used to invest for long-term capital projects so the district can pay cash for them rather than incur debt.