The Fox C-6 School District has scheduled another community meeting about a potential $48 million bond issue that might be placed on the April ballot.
The community meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m. Monday, at the Arnold Recreation Center, 1695 Missouri State Road. The district already held meetings at its four middle schools in October and November, and Superintendent Paul Fregeau said a total of about 95 people attended those meetings.
He said the fifth meeting, which Fox C-6 calls Community Learning Sessions, was scheduled for the morning to provide more people with the opportunity to attend.
“We were hearing from some people that they didn’t like to go out at night,” Fregeau said. “Some parents said they don’t have time free at night, but they have time free after they drop their kids off at school.”
The Fox district also is asking community members to fill out an online survey about how bond money could be spent. People may complete the survey through Friday by going to foxc6.org.
District officials said money from the bond issue could be spent on paying for new roofs, HVAC systems, parking lot repairs, school safety initiatives and possibly paying off lease agreements early.
The potential bond issue would not require a tax increase. However, if approved, the district’s debt service levy would be extended once the new bonds are sold.
Fox C-6 has an overall tax levy of $4.1867 per $100 assessed valuation, with the debt service levy accounting for 39.01 cents of that. Debt service levy funds are used to pay district debts.
Chief operating officer Tracy Schmidt said the Fox district currently owes $47,024,963.40 for general obligation bonds and $6,225,000 for lease agreements. The general obligation bonds are projected to be paid off in March 2041, and the lease agreements are expected to be paid off in March 2028.
Schmidt said Fox C-6’s general obligation bond debt would not be paid off until 2046 if voters approve the sale of $48 million in bonds.
If a bond issue were placed on the April ballot, it would require a four-sevenths (57.14 percent) vote for approval.
Fregeau said the district has received positive feedback about the potential bond issue following meetings at Antonia, Fox, Ridgewood and Seckman middle schools over the previous two months. Those meetings all started at 6:30 p.m.
“So far so good,” he said. “The one quote I remember is a gentleman came up to me and said, ‘You are just doing what I do; you are taking care of your house. But your numbers are a lot bigger.’ I thought that basically wrapped it up. We are just trying to take care of our buildings.”
Presentation
At the Oct. 14 meeting at Antonia Middle, Fregeau talked about the district’s various capital improvement needs, as well as the need for security updates. He also spoke about how a portion of the bond issue revenue could be used to pay off some existing debt to allow Fox C-6 to seek a tax shift from the debt service fund to its operating fund.
Fregeau said Fox C-6 has about 31 acres of rooftop and has spent more than $1.8 million to complete two partial roof replacements in the last three years.
After those partial replacements, Fox C-6 still had about 30.5 acres of roof that need to be replaced, which would cost an estimated $88 million, he said.
He also said the district has spent nearly $5 million to repave more than 1.9 million square feet of asphalt parking lots over the last three years. He said the district still needs to spend more than $2 million to replace or repair just more than 796,000 square feet of asphalt.
Fox C-6 has also spent more than $4 million to replace 37 HVAC units over the past three years, Fregeau said, but it still has 300 units that need to be replaced at an estimated cost of more than $42 million.
Fregeau said security upgrades over the past three years included building secure entry vestibules at every school with money from a $40 million bond issue voters approved in June 2020, putting in 790 security cameras, 5,086 square feet of security film on strategic windows and access controls on more than 40 exterior doors.
He said some additional security initiatives that could be funded with revenue from another potential bond issue include adding more perimeter control, like fences and gates, exterior door controls and additional security film on windows.
He said the district’s security rapid response could be improved by purchasing more security cameras, notifications systems and new classroom doors that automatically shut during a lockdown.
If the potential $48 million bond issue were approved, the district would likely pay off a $6,225,000 lease-purchase agreement owed for building Antonia Middle and for buying several buses earlier than projected, Fregeau said.
Those agreements are scheduled to be paid off in 2028.
He said if that debt were retired, the district could then ask voters to approve shifting 19 cents from the debt service levy to the operating levy, which would make that 19 cent tax permanent and allow the district to use it for purposes other than paying off its debt.
During each of the previous community meetings, people were asked to rank what they believe are the most pressing capital improvement projects that need to be done and what security initiatives they would like to see implemented at Fox C-6.
The responses were shown on a video board as people responded to questions through an online survey they accessed after scanning a QR code.
More information
Fregeau said additional information has been added to the presentation based on feedback at the previous community meetings.
“One of the biggest questions was the need for HVAC and roofs,” he said. “Is it immediate? What is your immediate need in the next five years?”
Fregeau said the district added information about capital improvement needs in the next five years.
At the Nov. 20 Arnold City Council meeting, Fregeau shared information from the community meetings, including the five-year projections, with elected officials.
He told the council that the Fox district has $23 million worth of roof replacement projects it needs to do in the next five years. He also said the district needs to spend $2 million to replace parking lots.
Fregeau said Fox C-6 will need to spend $15 million over the next five years to replace HVAC systems that are 17 years old or older.
“A bond issue can only be used for capital expenditures,” he told the board. “We cannot use this money to pay for salaries and benefits.”
Fregeau told the council that responses from the community meetings and surveys will be presented to the Board of Education in December. The board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Fox C-6 Service Center, 849 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold.
After the board is provided information what the community wants bond money to be spent on and decides if it wants to pursue the ballot issue, the members would vote in January to put the bond issue on the April ballot.
The board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Jan. 13 at the Service Center.