The Bowling Green Schools community will be asked to decide whether it wants to build a new high school or keep the 60-year-old current building.
The district on Tuesday is asking voters to support a 5.5-mill bond issue that will raise $72.8 million for a new high school and activity center.
Property taxes will be used to fund the project.
According to the Wood County Auditor’s Office, a resident with a home with an appraised value of $100,000 will pay $194.25 more a year. (The $100,000 value is used to make it easier to determine costs for other home values.)
The owner of a home valued at $250,000 will pay $485.63.
The district went with property tax rather than income tax because at the time, it was the cheapest option for the average taxpayer, said school board President Ryan Myers.
He said the board approved the funding method before the county’s reevaluation of its farmland was announced.
The auditor’s office announced the reevaluation numbers in August; the board set the ballot language in May.
“When we looked at it, it was the cheapest option for a majority of our community members,” Myers said.
In November 2022, the district asked for a new high school with funding split 70% property tax and 30% income tax.
“That didn’t seem to go over,” he said about its subsequent failure.
We looked at the cheapest and fairest for the average person, and property tax was the answer, he said.
House Bill 920 states that if inflation has caused the value of the property to increase, the auditor cuts the school tax rate so schools do not receive more money. That only applies to current levies and not new issues.
“No matter what, any time your value goes up, taxes are going to go up because of the 10 inside mills,” said Wood County Auditor Matt Oestreich in September.
Each taxing district can have a portion of the 10 mills of unvoted millage. This millage moves in direct correlation with property value. For instance, if a value increases or decreases 5%, taxes generated on the inside millage will increase or decrease 5%, respectively.
“This bond levy is new millage so their (taxes) are going to go up,” Oestriech said specifically about farmers, and estimated that increase in tax to be about $6.73 per acre of Hoytville soil on CAUV if the bond issue passes.
The cost for construction of the new high school is $62.319 million; the conversion of the existing high school to a new activity center is $7.043 million.
A 5% contingency of $3.436 million has been added.
If the contingency funds are not needed, they could be used for other facility improvements or to pay down the debt, according to Superintendent Ted Haselman.
The proposed 1,750-seat gymnasium will be at the north side of the new school, near the athletic fields, some of which will be moved to allow for parking; the gym may have a walking track on the second floor; the music and performing arts spaces will be near the Performing Arts Center; a media/business/STEM hub will be accessible from two floors; the cafeteria will have a three-story space; there will be a courtyard space for use by science classes and Penta; and private zones will have the capability to be locked when the public is in the building.
The building was designed to allow for future growth in the student population with bigger classrooms that will provide space for 21st century teaching.
Building and site considerations include geothermal heating and cooling, renewal energy (solar panel ready) and indoor air quality.
The existing high school will stay, minus the north academic wings, and be converted into a Bowling Green City Schools Activity Center.
It is not a community center, Myers said.
“Bowling Green has a community center. It’s an activity center,” he said.
The music rooms, main gymnasium area, auxiliary gymnasium area, and the cafeteria area would remain.
The extra gymnasium space would allow student-athletes, and mainly younger students, to complete daily practices at a more reasonable time for families.
Other local groups that serve students and the community, such as music and the arts, will have areas for practice and meetings.
An option for this area could include a family resource center for BGCS families, Myers said.
The space will not be used for academics.
There are a ton of benefits of having an activity center, Myers said, and the cost of replacing its 53,000 square feet would be more than the amount that’s been given.
“We’re actually being good stewards of the community’s money,” he said.
The lack of maintenance of the schools has been an area of contention for years.
Myers said he couldn’t speak about what happened before he joined the board three years ago.
“As we’ve sat down with (Superintendent Ted) Haselman, that was one of the many priorities for him,” Myers said. “He wants to do things correctly and hasn’t been much of a Band-Aid guy.”
As to the question about maintenance being ignored in the past, Myers admitted the buck stops with the board but there is no truth to the rumors that they purposely neglected the buildings.
“I’ve never been part of a conversation where we knew about an issue and the decision of the board was to ignore it,” he said.
They can’t fix it if they don’t know about it, he said.
Haselman said it is his intent to develop a capital improvement plan for district facilities.
There was no plan in place when he joined the district in August, and it is on his to-do list.
It takes time to develop, Haselman said.
“That allows us to budget and be prepared and plan for those routine maintenance issues,” he said.
To date, he has corrected the ceiling in the Kenwood Elementary gym, which was failing in spots, and addressed the cockroach problem at the high school.
He has ordered an exterior door at Conneaut Elementary to be repaired.
The outside curb appeal at the high school and middle school have been improved, and bricks have been replaced at the high school’s roadside sign and at the building’s entrance.
“There are things that need to be addressed and I recognize that and am working on it,” Haselman said.
There also are repairs that can’t be made and a capital improvement plan is not going to fix the guts of the high school, he said.
“It’s a focal point to take care of what we have right now. Anything we would get would be taken care of very well,” Myers said.
Any new construction that is part of an Ohio Facilities Construction Commission project is required by OFCC to earmark 0.5 mills for upkeep and maintenance of the building. Those funds will be placed in a special fund that can only be used for upkeep and ongoing maintenance of the new building.
Seventeen percent, or $7.5 million, of the project will be reimbursed from the OFCC. The district would receive that reimbursement in five-10 years.
“We don’t have enough money to be able to build a new high school. We would get this done ourselves if we could, but we can’t,” Myers said.
The district has $17 million in its general fund, $1.6 million it the permanent improvement fund and $3.5 million in a capital project fund, according to Haselman.
He compared using these funds to pay for a new building to using all your savings to buy a new car.
It would eliminate payments but also would not leave any money to pay for food or shelter, he said.
It would cost $47.5 million to renovate the high school, but the project would not be co-funded by OFCC.
The high school, built in 1963, is not handicap friendly and has lacked air conditioning until this year when mini-splits were installed.
There is one elevator that is not centrally located for use by a student who uses a wheelchair; science rooms are not properly equipped; steam pipes leak; and classrooms are too small to best serve teaching for the future with technology.
Myers also addressed previous statements that the district may ask for new operating money in 2024.
The district is expected to spend $1.6 million more than it takes in this year and $10.6 million more in fiscal year 2027, according to the five-year forecast Treasurer Cathy Schuller presented in May.
If nothing changes, the forecast shows a negative cash balance of $14.5 million in fiscal year 2027, she said.
“I personally don’t want to go to the ballot unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Myers said.
It may happen, but with the uncertainty of state funding and pipeline money, it is not guaranteed, he said.
Myers pointed out the district has not asked for new operating money since 2010.
“We’re doing out absolute best to not go to the voters. If we can avoid it, we will,” he said.
Should the levy pass next week, groundbreaking would take place around May of 2025 with a target opening date of August 2027. Selective demolition of the old high school would take place after the opening of the new building. A target opening date of the BGCS Activity Center would be the spring of 2028.
This will be the second attempt in one year to gain support for a new high school.
The $70 million bond request for a new high school that was split 70% property tax and 30% income tax failed in November 2022 by 457 votes.
Dating back to 2017, two previous attempts to fund a new academic wing, gym and cafeteria at the high school have failed. Those projects were tied to a request for one consolidate elementary school.
A third request, solely for one consolidated elementary, lost by 32 votes in November 2019.
