by Ivan Foley
Landmark editor

Voters in the North Platte School District will decide the fate of a $6 million bond issue question at a November election.

The money would be used to construct a new intermediate school--or to renovate the existing intermediate school at Edgerton (built in 1927, pictured above), as well as to perform other repairs to other district facilities.

This week the North Platte Board of Education unanimously approved ballot language for the bond issue question, which will require four-sevenths majority approval for passage.

Vague ballot language wording leaves open the possibility the $6 million in bonds could be used for either a new intermediate school or a rehabilitation project on the existing structure.

Dr. Jeff Sumy, superintendent, told The Landmark this week that by mid-September “we should have a direction to take to the community.”

A new 21,000 square foot structure is estimated at $5.2 million. To remodel 9,000 square feet of the existing structure and then to add on 12,000 square feet to the remodeled 9,000 would cost $4.4 million, Sumy said.

The district has been researching the possibility of Qualified School Construction Bonds, which would use federal stimulus money to pay the interest on bonds for new school construction and rehabilitation. Sumy said the district’s best hope seems to be that about 40 to 50% of the interest on the bond issue would be paid with stimulus money.

According to the ballot language submitted by the board of education to the Platte County Board of Elections this week, passage of the bond issue would increase the district’s property tax levy by 99 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

The district’s current tax levy is $3.9991 per $100 of assessed valuation.

The ballot language asks voters for permission for the district to borrow money “in the amount of $6 million for the purpose of providing funds for the site development, construction, equipping and furnishing of a new intermediate school or the renovation of the existing intermediate school in Edgerton, whichever is more cost effective.”

Bond money also would be used for the “completion of other remodeling and repair improvements to the existing facilities of the district,” according to the ballot language.

Repairs to existing structures, Sumy said, would include a new roof at the junior high in Dearborn. Some tuckpointing could be done to the elementary school building at Camden Point, he added.