News

Bottineau School Board holds special meeting

By Scott Wagar

06/03/2014

The Bottineau School Board held a special school board meeting on Tuesday, May 27, to discuss the Facilities Master Plan (FMP) for the next referendum vote in the school district which will take place this August.

The primary discussion on Tuesday evening were two resolutions the school board needed to approve so that the referendum vote could take place this summer.

It was brought out by the Ad Hoc Committee during the meeting that the school board would request from the district’s taxpayers around $12.9 million for the FMP in a project that would cost overall an estimated $16.1 million.

It should be stated here that these financial numbers are only estimates. The costs depend on where bids will come in for the project, and the cost cannot increase, only decrease. District residents would have 20 years to pay back their portion of the 12.9 million.

When compared to the referendum vote in November of 2013 (for a new school building that would house grades PreK-5), the referendum vote this August should be around $6 million less than the original referendum vote. Last year’s vote requested the district residents to pay out $18.9 million on a project that would cost over $19 million.  

With the discussions over, the school board voted on two resolutions.  The first resolution included the Initial Resolution for General Obligation School Building Bond, which included:

● A maximum amount of bonds proposed to be issued is $12,960,000

● The purpose for which the bonds are proposed to be issued to provide funds, together, with any other funds available, to construct, remodel, improve and equipment school building, including additional classrooms and remodeling of current classrooms

● The assessed valuation of all taxable property in the school district as defined in N.D.C.C. 21-03-01, is $300,988,395 as last finally equalized for the year 2013

● The total amount of bonded indebtedness of the school district, all issued for school building purposes, is $1,150,000

The school board voted in favor of resolution.

The next resolution was for a Resolution Calling a Special Election to Vote on the Question of Approving an initial Resolution for General Obligation School Building Bonds, which set the time, place and polling hours for the referendum vote.

The resolution stated the vote would take place on Aug. 12, 2014, at the Bottineau Public School from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.   

The school board voted to approve this resolution.

In other school business concerning the upcoming referendum vote, the board discussed public forums, the issues to be discussed at the forums and tour(s) of Central School during the next two months before the August vote.

Although specific times were not set, the dates for the forums and tour(s) will be set in a short period of time and announced to the public.