Aging and outdated facilities, and the accompanying drain on finances, has been a recurring topic of discussion in the chambers of the Pueblo, Colo., City Schools (D60) board of education.
During March's regular meeting, the board took a serious step toward a long-term and stable solution for a dilemma that's estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
As recommended by a review committee spearheaded by David Horner, the district's chief financial officer, and Bob Lawson, executive director of facilities, the board agreed to contract with Denver-based MOA Architecture for services that will be essential in prepping for a bond issue, potentially as early as November 2019.
For its $339,000 fee, MOA Architecture will provide the district with "educational programming" — working with team to fashion the type of buildings that will allow for quality educational delivery heading into the future — update D60's facility master plan, review an enrollment forecast, and conduct community, administration and board meetings.
MOA Architecture will, Horner told the board, work with the district to develop a complete bond proposal, with conceptual drawings and pricing, to present to the community in hopes of seeing the bond approved.
MOA Architecture's fee will be paid in both the current and next fiscal year, leading up to the potential vote in 2019.
In response to a question from Board President Barb Clementi, Horner said the district's current bonding capacity could be as high as $386 million, although he questioned whether the community would be willing to incur such a steep debt.
"That's all part of the future conversations," Horner told Clementi.
In reference to the current D60 bond being paid off, Horner added, "Another two years of payments is going to buy it down a little bit, but then is the assessed value going to go up or down in the next years?
"There's quite a bit of capacity. But will it solve all our problems when we have over half a billion dollars of deferred needs? No. But it sure has potential to do some things."
Future conversations centered around the bond and district facilities likely will include discussion of the combining of schools in the face of declining enrollment projections.
"It all fits perfectly into your strategic plan and where you guys are going," Horner said. "And we are following right along with you."
To that point, Lawson said the architectural work essentially would merge with the strategic plan.
"There's going to be extensive meetings with learning services, with the community, with our educators to make sure that happens, so that we know what our facilities are going to be," Lawson said.
Lawson did, however, express apprehension as far as a November 2019 rollout date.
"Going for a 2019 bond to do all of this isn't realistic," he said. "This is a 20-year plan. With this foundation of information that's going to come out of this, we can go out multiple times if necessary to achieve what needs to be done."
