STE. GENEVIEVE – Voters Tuesday gave overwhelming support to the Ste. Genevieve School District R-II’s $20 million PropSG no-tax increase bond issue.
Prop SG passed with 70.51 percent of the vote and a margin of 1,000 more yes votes than no votes.
The purpose of this bond issue is to help fund facility needs identified through the district’s long-range Facilities Plan. The immediate priorities identified by the Facilities Committee, made up of more than 100 members, include the development of an Early Childhood Center, as well as accessibility, safety and security, and activities renovations and additions throughout the district. The focus areas listed below are what the district hopes to accomplish for our students and for our community:
- Early Childhood: building an Early Childhood Center
- Genevieve Elementary: updates for accessibility including a new entry and reconfigured offices, a renovated gym, and HVAC
- Genevieve Middle School: updates for accessibility, including an elevator to the top floor, and HVAC
- Bloomsdale Elementary: reconfigured entry, address the lagoon, and HVAC
- 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
“We are incredibly grateful to our community for supporting this impactful bond issue,” Superintendent Dr. Julie Flieg said. “While the scope of this bond issue is extensive and would address needs district wide, we are also confident that these improvements are necessary, timely, and will serve our students, families, and community well.”
Over the next few weeks, the district will provide updated information regarding timelines for various projects. Our architectural firm will begin to solidify plans, and the district will begin all necessary preliminaries to site work, such as ordering any relevant surveys. Projects will be put out to bid in packages, and the responses will determine when specific projects can begin. And of course, the timelines are dependent upon the availability of materials and scheduling construction work. The district anticipates possibly breaking ground on an Early Childhood Center about a year to a year and a half from now.
While our Facilities Committee developed a framework for what an Early Childhood Center might look like, specifics related to its development will be determined through an Early Childhood Committee. This group will include parents, educators, and community members. It is vitally important to include our stakeholders in the Center’s development of specific areas, such as building plan and design, reorganization of our current early childhood programs, before and after school childcare, transportation services, extended school year, and much more.
The district’s Prop SG website (https://bit.ly/PropSG) will continue to be updated to share the progress of the project with our community.
The voters also elected Jamie (Naeger) Ballew and Joshua Gettinger to the Ste. Genevieve County R-II Board of Education, both for their first term. Both candidates will be sworn in at 7 p.m. on April 19, 2022, at a Reorganizational Session scheduled before the regular board meeting in the SGHS Commons. The board will also select board officers at this time.
Jamie (Naeger) Ballew is an accountant at Citizens Electric, a position she has held since graduating from Southeast Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting in 2007. Ballew is treasurer of the Ste. Genevieve Parent Teacher Organization, president elect of the Ste. Genevieve Rotary Club, a volunteer substitute teacher at Ste. Genevieve Catholic Parish School of Religion, and an active member of Sacred Heart Parish in Ozora.
To learn more about Jamie Ballew, click here (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x4jUZaBM9wwhvRuuiC7lpUTeljpa2Y1o/view?usp=sharing).
Joshua Gettinger is a business intelligence analyst at Edward Jones, a position he has held since 2017. Prior to joining Edward Jones, Josh was employed by Bloomsdale Bank. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance, and he went on to earn a Master of Business Administration from Missouri Baptist University. Gettinger is a member of the St. Mary Immaculate Conception Church Preservation Society, and has volunteered for The Salvation Army, Great Circle, and Samaritan’s Purse.
To learn more about Joshua Gettinger, click here (https://drive.google.com/file/d/13yjQylTTcs3dSxyI3xrJrHrrP7rMuXjm/view?usp=sharing).
Community members Larry Pfaff, Bradley Arnold, Michael Stoll, and Samuel Barbagallo also ran for the two open seats on the Board of Education.
Ballew and Gettinger will join current board members David Bova, Eric Basler, James Kirchner, Martha Resinger, and Geralyn Diesel on the Ste. Genevieve R-II Board of Education. Board members Terry McDaniel and Rick Rudloff made the decision not to run for re-election this year. McDaniel served seven terms for a total of 21 years, and Rudloff served three terms for a total of 9 years on the Board of Education.
“We want to thank and recognize Mr. McDaniel and Mr. Rudloff for their years of service and their dedication to our students, our families, and our staff.” Dr. Flieg said. “During their tenure on the Board, both of these gentlemen have consistently advocated for what was best for our students. We will miss their presence on the Board of Education, but we wish them the best of luck going forward.”
The Ste. Genevieve County R-II School District would like to thank all of the employees, families and community members for taking the time to cast their votes on April 5, 2022.