Board prepares for bond vote
The Thayer Central Board of Education heard from Paul Grieger of D.A. Davidson Monday evening regarding a school bond resolution the board is mulling for its January meeting.
A brochure sent to the community prior to the meeting stated preliminary project funds made up of funds from the district’s special building account and proposed bond would amount to a total of $8.5 to $8.7 million.
In addition to the brochure, the board is striving to reach the community through several methods — public service video presentations, shared information on its website, virtual meetings and a variety of other media outlets.
The board wants to engage the public as much as possible, Superintendent Randy Page said in a separate interview.
A bond resolution of $5 to $5.2 million would be added to the special building fund amount of the projected $3.5 million by June of 2021. The current amount of the special building fund is $3.3 million, and it is specifically for facility improvements.
If the resolution is passed in January by the board, an election will be held March 9. D.A. Davidson has handled school bonds across Nebraska and Grieger presented the board members with a sample resolution.
The language of the resolution will need to be decided by the board that includes the facilities committee, Tyson Hissong, Rob Marsh and Curt Mumm. The committee will meet before the January meeting and although the resolution will be discussed, the committee plans to focus more on educating new board members, Chris Hergott and Jeremy Heitmann, both of whom were at the Monday evening meeting.
Preliminary bond numbers identify a 4.7-cent levy for 15 years based on the district’s current valuation to generate the $5 to $5.2 million bond. If a successful election is held, the bonds would be levied in September of 2021 and go into effect in January of 2022.
“The bond would knock out a lot of projects at once instead of the school taking on little projects at a time,” Page said. “The bond could do everything listed.”
The brochure sent to the community details a master plan for Thayer Central that has developed over the past several years from the school’s community:
•Safety and Security — connecting the buildings; disaster shelters; and fire suppression;
•Updated Instructional Space — special education; career pathways; instrumental music; vocal music; visual arts; physical education; and FFA;
•Expanded school/community space — weight room; wrestling room; locker rooms; commons/lunch space; competition gym; and on site parking.
“The board wants people to be informed because if we have a resolution passed in January that sparks the March election, people should feel like they’re informed,” Page said.
In other business, the board met in closed session to determine Page’s contract. After, his contract was renewed for two years, beginning July 1. Page is already contracted until then.
At the beginning of the meeting, the board heard from Mackenzie Hergott of Clint Havel’s classroom and Jocelynn Mumm of Deb Vorderstrasse’s classroom because the two classrooms used approximately a three-month planning process to create new lyrics for the Thayer Central Titan spirit song.
The girls presented the lyrics to the board and a video of students singing the song was played:
“We are the mighty, fighting Titans! Go T-C-S!
“We are the mighty, fighting Titans, better than all the rest!
“We will carry our shield; the Titan way is smart and strong.
“Thayer Central Titans, fight for victory all day long!”
In addition to planning in small groups in each classroom, the students eventually met with their entire classrooms, and then joined the two classrooms to decide on the lyrics. They also met with the high school student council and received a thumbs-up.
