CRANE Crane ISD has just begun the process of preparing for a possible November 2022 bond issue.
This will be the first bond in seven or eight years since teacher housing was financed, Superintendent Stephanie Howard said. Part of the most recent bond financed housing for teachers, she said.
The needs haven’t been fully determined yet, but one of the things that keeps coming up is a new middle school.
Board President Alan Swinford was in charge of facilities and construction for the district for 27 years. He retired about eight years ago.
Swinford said if you look at the exterior of the middle school and walk in the building “it’s still a pretty nice building because it’s well maintained.”
“But the infrastructure part of the building is the problem. The parts, the plumbing, the electrical; all those things. It’s gotten to the point in its lifecycle (where) it’s cost prohibitive to renovate it again. The last renovation in the district was done in 1998 and that was the high school and middle school. They were pretty extensive renovations, but everything has a lifecycle and those things have reached the end of their life,” Swinford said.
“This time it could be renovated again, but you’re going to spend a high percentage of your money on an older facility,” he added.
Howard said they started the committee process Jan. 24 and 31 people turned out including community members, parents, teachers and other staff.
“We were real pleased with that. But like I say, we had our first meeting on Jan. 24 …,” Howard said.
The citizens committee will continue to meet through May with a June meeting, if needed.
A recommendation is expected to go to the board June 14.
“… With anything like this, you typically can’t do everything that needs to be done at one time, so the committee will be working on priority projects and priority needs and bring forward a recommendation to the board as to what they should do, and consideration for calling a bond in November of 2022,” Howard said.
The one thing that has come up since she started six months ago is the need for a new middle school. The campus has about 253 students in grades six through eight.
A new elementary school was built in 2011. It has a little more than 580 students. Their kindergarten class is their largest, she said.
The district is projecting growth, but not big growth. It has 1,162 students. The high school has about 325 students in grades nine through 12.
“In the situation at the middle school, it’s not so much about space. It’s just the age of the facility and what it costs to maintain it and just those things underneath, in the walls, the systems that just continue to be difficult to maintain,” Howard said.
The average age of Crane ISD facilities is 43 years old. There are 14 buildings enclosing 324,511 square feet, RJ Lopez, senior architect with Parkhill, said.
The original parts of the middle school were built in 1952.
“There were some renovations or additions in 1977, and then again in 1998. But that building is at the point where when you look at the facility index, it’s going to give you the exact number, it’s about 72, 73% of replacement value at this point. So to renovate would cost about 72, 73% of what it would cost to replace the building. … When you get up over about 65%, it typically makes more sense to build a new building than to continue putting money into a building that’s that old.”
The high school was built in 1948 and had an addition put on in 1978. The ag building was built in 1952.
“… Buildings of that age have some renovation needs and work to be done,” Howard said.
Lopez is leading the work and presented an overview of facility needs and where buildings stand on the facility index rating at the Jan. 24 meeting.
John Blackburn with Live Oak Public Finance is the district’s financial advisor. Howard said he provided a little bit of financial information at the first meeting and was expected to include a financial overview and bond capacity at a Feb. 7 meeting.
They will look at what different tax rates and how much money they would have. The district’s total tax rate is .9835 per $100 valuation for 2021, Howard said. That includes a $.8961 per $100 valuation maintenance and operations rate and a $.0874 per $100 valuation interest and sinking rate.
Howard said the amount of money they have will help determine the projects put up for a vote.
The committee will have to decide the amount of debt and the tax rate that the public would support and then determine what projects fit within that amount of money, she said.
“… With all the groups I have met with, whether that be internal people or community leaders, the middle school always comes up. When are we going to build a new middle school, so I think the community understands those immediate needs that we have. … The committee will actually hear all of the needs, look at the condition of the facilities and all the financial information and then make decisions. This will be a committee recommendation and we feel like that’s really important,” Howard said.
With the schools in Crane, most community members grew up and went to school there, so they are invested.
“… They have kids, grandkids coming through the system, family members working at the district, you know, so I think you … get the support because there’s that tie-in … to the school that sometimes in bigger places … people live there that never had a kid go through the schools and … don’t always know what the facilities are like and what the needs are,” Howard added.
Crane ISD has the elementary, middle and high schools. They have an ag building, a welding lab, a maintenance and transportation building and the Bethune Building, which houses the 3 year old daycare and an after-school program. There also is a technology center that has some office space and some technology classrooms, and the field house, she said.
Some upgrades to sports facilities are on the list for needs. Howard said they just put in new turf and a new track down.
She said there have been facility committees before, but they never went forward with calling a bond.
Swinford said there were several issues at play there.
“The process was started and I’d left the district about the time that they were going to the next phase of that, but as I understand it there was still some bond debt outstanding that had been incurred for the elementary project and so I don’t think they felt like they wanted to go out for another bond while they still had one that they were paying on,” Swinford said.
“And then they did another project. They built some teacher housing with a small bond and did a few things. Then COVID hit, so we really just … started talking about getting it back on track some months before Dr. Howard came on the scene,” Swinford added.
Howard said there are going to be needs that come up, but it’s going to be a matter of what the committee prioritizes.
“… Our community is very supportive of all of our programs. We have a very strong band program, athletic programs, and it’s something that community really gets behind. So I expect there will be some recommendations for all parts of our facilities. And then, again, it just kind of goes back to prioritizing based on the amount of money that we feel is … a number that the community can get behind and support,” Howard said.
“We also have to take into account that we’re not the only entity in town that has debt, so we have to think about what the tax rate is and how that impacts our community,” she added.
The district has a debt service rate, of about 8 cents per $100 valuation that Howard said is probably one of the lowest in the state, so there is bond capacity.
Also, a bond that was used in part for teacher housing will be paid off in 2023.
“There’s definitely capacity that bond will be paid off in 2023 … That’s one of the approaches the financial advisor will take is if we did nothing what would 8 cents give us. … If we did nothing and then if we added five cents to that, so he’ll be bringing those numbers next week so that committee can see, without even changing the tax rate, here’s what we can do,” Howard said.
Howard can talk to people about facilities right now, but once bond is called she can only offer faculty information. She cannot advocate, only educate.
By the time it’s complete, the process will take about 10 months. Howard said she couldn’t say whether the committee will recommend a bond, but as proceedings wrap up, they will make recommendations for long-range plans and then whether a bond should be called and when.
It is up to the school board to call the bond.
Lopez with Parkhill said they walked through every district facility in Crane and write down every deficiency or maintenance item they could find.
“… We put that into a facilities condition report, and based on that report, they have put together a committee to help come up with a long-range facility plan …,” Lopez said.
He added that the group is charged with looking at the facility condition report, prioritizing projects to be done over the next five to 10 years and making a recommendation to the board on the next step forward for completing their long-range facility plan.
“We’re at the beginning stages of prioritizing and looking at projects, so we haven’t put anything on the list for sure and we haven’t taken anything off yet,” Lopez said. “The only thing the (school) board has asked the committee to consider … is the historical significance of both the high school facade and then Bethune. That’s really the only direction they have right now as far as coming up with that long-range plan, so everything’s still on the table at this point,” Lopez said.
He noted that the buildings have been maintained very well.
“Everything is super clean,” Lopez said.
He checks the restrooms as a test.
“Every one I went to, whether it was 1948 or 2012, they were spotless and the kids were in school. You could tell that the kids and facility managers take pride in taking care of their buildings. The fact that they’re still able to provide the education that they are with the current facilities is definitely amazing and a tribute to their staff and students,” Lopez said.
Swinford said he’s hopeful that financing for improvements or building new will pass.
“… I think the members on the committee … really believe that something needs to be done; now what direction they’ll want to go, I don’t know, but the decisions they make will affect the next generation of taxpayers. So if you do a huge bond and the term of the bond is 30 years, you and I may not be paying taxes on it anymore but our kids would be, or people’s grandkids. So the obligation is multi-generational. Our board was very committed to having our townspeople and the stakeholders give us guidance, rather than some people who were elected to a board saying here’s what we need to do. This needs to be a decision of the community,” Swinford said.
He added that community involvement ebbs and flows in Crane, but one of the focuses of the board is to try to increase that.
“Crane schools have always been in the center of the community and it’s the reason I stayed in Crane for 40 years,” Swinford said.
