Glenwood School District Proposes $40 Million Bond Issue For Facility Improvements

The Glenwood Community School District is planning to pursue a $40 million bond this November that it intends to use for improvements to facilities across the district.

At a special meeting laast Monday at the district’s central office, the Glenwood Board of Education approved the project. On hand for the meeting was Travis Squires, managing director of public finance with Piper-Sandler, the district’s bond advisor. Mitch Holt, of Genesis Contracting, the district’s construction manager, appeared via zoom.

Holt and Squires presented the board the project’s scope and funding options, according to Glenwood Superintendent Dr. Devin Embray. The project would include a substantial overhaul to Northeast Elementary, in addition to improvements at Glenwood Middle School and the district’s administrative offices.

The board approved the district to purse the general obligation bond in the amount of $40 million. Once the district secures the necessary 273 signatures – a figure representing 25 percent of the ballots cast in the previous school election – on a petition to add the measure to the Nov. 7 ballot, the bond will be in the hands of voters. The measure will require a 60 percent super majority to pass.

One factor that could impact the total bond figure are three grants the district is pursuing for the daycare facilities and the GRC administration building, according to Embray. Those grants could reduce the project cost by nearly $5 million.

The district had planned to pursue the bond in a March 2024 special election but recent changes in state law requiring bond votes to be held in November altered that plan.

“It doesn’t change anything – we just had to get organized a little faster,” Embray said.

Regardless of when the bond would be put to voters, the measure will be the same in November as it would have been in March, Embray said. He does admit, voter appetite for a $40 million bond, in a year when property tax assessments are up and the economy teeters on recession, can be fickle, but the need, he said, is there.“The board is adamant that we make sure the ‘why’ of this is out there in terms of the status of Northeast,” he said.

Embray went on to say West Elementary is the district’s oldest building, but it underwent an extensive renovation in 1999, leaving Northeast in greatest need of updating.

“I think the public realizes we have to get off the GRC campus and we won’t have a daycare and we need a place to put it,” he said. “We hope to write for statewide daycare grants and another local one to offset those costs. I think the appetite of the community is supportive but it’s a G.O. bond, so it’s tough.”

A factor in the bond’s favor is the fact the high school’s bonds roll off the books in 2025. According to Embray, the district is anticipating a zero sum increase on the levy, meaning no increase in taxes for stakeholder if the bond issue passes.

The $40 million project would be the district’s largest facilities improvement bond to date.

The largest piece of that figure, $29.5 million is earmarked for the long-planned renovation and expansion at Northeast Elementary School. Built originally in the early 1970s, the building has had several renovations throughout the decades, but the school’s enrollment and needs have long since outgrown its layout and classroom capacities. Northeast had the highest enrollment of Glenwood’s buildings last school year with over 600 pre-kindergarten through second grade students.

The changes to Northeast will include a remodeled, secure entrance vestibule, a wing that would hold the Kids Place daycare, additional classrooms and a new gymnasium. In all, 48,000 square feet of space would be added.

In addition to the Northeast work, the district is planning $5 million in renovations at the middle school and $1 million in improvements at the district’s central office on the campus of the Glenwood Resource Center. Approximately $4.5 is planned for land ($600,000), soft costs ($2.7 million) and contingency ($1.2 million).

If approved, work could begin as early as next spring. Construction at Northeast is expected to last up to two years, according to Embray, with work being staged around student classrooms.

Embray said community meetings are being planned for the fall “to get the word out” about the project, costs and scope. A political action committee (PAC) made up largely of district parents and affiliated with the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) will spearhead what Embray said is being dubbed the “Yes” campaign, designed to drum up support for the bond.

“It has to be done by a political action committee and the school (district) can’t be involved,” Embray said. “They’re a parent group organized to do that and they’re just getting started.”

As part of last Monday’s special meeting, the board also approved a renewal of its one-year lease agreement with the state for the use of the building at 103 Central on the GRC campus. The building is the home of the district’s central office and Kids Place. The current lease runs through June 2024, but the state has shown an interest in the district remaining on the campus longer.

“They are giving us two one-year lease options to extend it, so we’ll have time to be up there until the campus closes down,” he said. “They’d have to approve it, but I think they’d let us be up there that long.”