By Ste. Genevieve School District R-II
STE. GENEVIEVE –The Ste. Genevieve County R-II School District would like to urge our families and community members to vote on April 5, 2022. The district has placed Prop SG, a no-tax rate increase bond issue, on the ballot. The purpose of Prop SG is to help fund facility needs identified through our district’s long-range Facilities Plan. If passed, the bond issue will allow for an Early Childhood Center, as well as renovations and additions in the areas of accessibility, safety and security, and activities throughout the district.
In January of 2020, the district launched a long-range Facilities Committee with the purpose of creating a fluid framework of facilities development for existing areas and future projects. More than 100 committee members participated, including Board members, administrators, faculty and staff, families and students, and community members. This group researched and identified immediate priorities, as well as 5-, 10-, and 15-year priorities. The following were identified as immediate priorities, and they are the areas of focus we hope to address through Prop SG:
Early Childhood: building an Early Childhood Center
Ste. Genevieve Elementary: updates for accessibility including a new entry and reconfigured offices, a renovated gym, and HVAC
Ste. Genevieve Middle School: updates for accessibility, including an elevator to the third floor, and HVAC
Bloomsdale Elementary: reconfigured entry, address the lagoon, and HVAC
Ste. Genevieve High School: addition of a gym and newly-renovated weight and wrestling rooms, and updated restrooms
Yanks & Leon’s Field: lights, fencing, bleachers and restrooms
Technology: updated door lock system districtwide
“Our areas of highest need are all rooted in community: Early Childhood, Accessibility, Safety and Security, and Activities,” Superintendent Dr. Julie Flieg said. “Funding these areas strengthens our services and programming, which supports our students, our families, and our community.”
One of the most significant priorities this committee identified was the need for an Early Childhood Center, an initiative that would:
offer preschool and early childhood services to more families in our community, as our community has been feeling the strain in terms of available early childhood education and preschool services. Our district programs, which can currently only provide services for children who are 3+ years old, have an ongoing waitlist
allow Parents As Teachers, Early Childhood Special Education and Preschool classrooms to be in one location.
allow the creation of screening, visit and group connection areas.
allow for the repurposing of existing spaces at the elementary level for classrooms.
In anticipation of the passage of Prop SG, the district is excited to announce that it has obtained property in Ste. Genevieve, in hopes of being able to build an Early Childhood Center at this location. This property is located at the western end of Maple Drive in Ste. Genevieve.
As facility planning progressed the last few years, the district explored various avenues for a future Early Childhood Center, including the possibility of purchasing and renovating existing buildings in Ste. Genevieve. As none of these properties fit our needs or were available at the right time, the district searched for other options in order to find the option that could culminate in the best possible outcome for our students and for our community. Fortunately, the district was able to acquire a parcel of land from private individuals, which would offer a small campus for the building of a future Early Childhood Center.
“We discussed several possibilities for this expansion,” Board President David Bova said. “I am so thankful that this possibility came to fruition in such a timely manner. This would allow us to expand our services to our students and community, while keeping a possible new Early Childhood Center close to existing emergency services, city sewer, and the majority of our current bus routes. I am incredibly excited to see things coming together in a way that will benefit our entire district and our entire community.”
Prop SG is a no-tax rate increase bond, which means that this bond would be a continuation of the present debt service, rather than the district incorporating an increase to the debt service into the bond issue.
SG R-II maintains a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility by striving to utilize our funding sources in ways that make the greatest impact while carefully planning ahead with our taxpayers’ benefit in mind. A no-tax rate increase $20 million bond referendum would be well below the district’s $55 million bonding capacity. We are proud to have saved taxpayers more than $2.1 million of future interest expense since 2015 through refinancing bonds. The district was pleased to be able to decrease its total tax rate by about 6 cents for the 2021-22 school year with the operating levy set at $2.9517 and the debt service levy at $0.4400, totaling $3.3971.
Throughout the past few years, the district has focused on utilizing alternative funding sources to address some of the needs identified through the facility planning process, such as utilizing:
funds from the Ste. Genevieve County R-II Foundation; grants we have been awarded; funds set aside annually for athletic field updates; and state and federal allocated COVID-19 funds, some of which have been used for important safety and infrastructure upgrades, such as necessary HVAC and roofing work.
While the district hopes to be able to fund the facility needs listed above, we also recognize that unexpected expenses may occur. If some projects, or portions of some projects, were unable to be completed due to unexpected circumstances, these needs would be addressed in the following ballot initiative, or as funds become available.