SMSD Bond Issue Panel Recap

SMSD held a panel discussion on Dec. 3 to discuss the 2021 bond proposal of how the district will spend the $263 million to support facilities with a focus on elementary rebuilds and student learning. The bond is being presented to go toward covering costs of over $750 million. 

“This bond issue really focuses on meeting about $263 million worth of those needs including rebuilding some elementary schools, and making sure that we’re getting important compliance issues like the American Disabilities Act accessibility in place in all of our buildings,” Superintendent Dr. Mike Fulton said in panel discussion.

The money to fund the bonds will come from a property tax increase within the SMSD. The bonds will fund a variety of projects, predominantly the reconstruction of the elementary schools Diemer, Rushtom, Tomahawk and Westwood View. 

Renovations will include upgraded roofing, asphalt, HVAC and lighting as well as furniture renovation and replacement. There will also be technology upgrades and additional secondary teachers hired to help with teacher work loads.

Panelists included Superintendent Mike Fulton, Rhein Benninghoven Elementary principal Dr. Brittney Gonser, Nieman Elementary teacher Amber Pagan, Diemer parent and PTA president Diana Weeks-Radke and Community Member and SM Education Foundation former president Anthony Springfield. 

Though the timing of the remodel may seem odd given the pandemic, Chief of Communications David Smith pointed out Fulton said the referendum has been in the works for about five years.

“One of the things that we did in our strat plan is we identified specifically what those facility needs would be to make sure that SMSD stayed strong for its future,” Fulton said in the discussion.

Fulton noted that the district contains many buildings, playgrounds, facilities and square feet to maintain, some of which are over 50 years old so the bond issue would create a better system of funding since there hasn’t been a bond issue since 2015.

“Having this bond issue pass allows us to do all of our new construction for facilities out of our bond issues,” Fulton said in the discussion. “In the past we’ve had to use our capital funds for that, now we’ll just use bond issue funds.”

With capital funds — funds that are designated to build and maintain district buildings — no longer being used, the district could move custodial maintenance salaries into the capital outlay budget so they no longer use the capital fund for facility needs, freeing up money in the operating fund to hire secondary teachers.

“It’s an exciting time and opportunity to meet the needs of our facilities and ongoing maintenance and get construction done, while also having long term strategy to fund reducing secondary workload so the teachers have more time to work with students to help them put together their personalized learning plans prepare them to be college and career ready and help them have the interpersonal skills to be successful,” Fulton said in the discussion. 

Principal at Rhein Benninghoven, a new elementary school in the district, Dr. Brittany Gonser has experienced the new modern learning environment and the ways it helps teachers and students.

“Our new and updated facilities really benefit our student learners in a variety of ways,” Dr. Gonser said in the discussion. “Some of those ways [are] just the approaches to learning and teaching that we’re willing to take in our building. We know it’s really important for the members of our community that our kids when they love highschool, that they are prepared for whatever they want to do next. 

Gonser shared that the facilities, furniture, new layout and structure in the school has created a better learning space for students.

“We have a dedicated maker space where we can engage in STEM activities and a lot of hands on learning experiences,” Gonser said in the discussion. “Same with our updated library media spaces, they provide a lot of those opportunities as well. And also those presentation skills and teaching and listening skills. We have dedicated spaces that are set up for students to use technology and present and share their own ideas.” 

Voting will be done using mail-in ballots to determine if the bond issue will be passed. The last day to register for voting is Dec. 28. On Jan. 6, the ballot should arrive in your mailbox. Later voter registration is also available from Dec. 29 to Jan. 5. Visit smsd.org to learn more information about the 2021 bond proposal.