By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - Building a new high school makes the most sense.
With a vote of 25 to 1, steering committee members have to come up with a plan to present to the Niles Community Schools Board of Education as to what the district can do to improve its facilities. They decided building a new high school in Niles makes the most sense.
A new high school and district-wide renovations would be possible for 7 mills, by the district taking advantage of the school bond loan program offered by the Michigan Department of Treasury.
The program allows the district to borrow the money it will need for construction upfront, for any millage which would be above 7 mills and then pay off the loan at the end of the bond.
Seven mills is the lowest debt amount necessary to participate in the school bond loan program and is an advantage to the district as it will allow them to get more dollars for their bond levy.
Being part of the school bond loan program does lengthen the time in which the bond is paid off, but it does allow the initial amount the taxpayers must pay to be lower and keeps the rate the same for the majority of the life of the bond.
The plan the core steering committee brought forth to the rest of the committee calls for the district to build a new high school, renovate the current high school into a middle school, with it holding grades sixth through eight as well as the administration offices. Ring Lardner would then be renovated into a K through fifth grade building and renovations would be done to Howard, Southside, Ballard, Northside and Oak Manor.
Cost isn't the only factor the core committee looked at when making their decision to recommend the building of a new high school.
The committee did look at the option of the district building a new elementary school rather than a high school, and renovate the remaining buildings. The cost for this project would be about $96.6 million, where the high school would cost about $104.8 million.
After getting the community survey results back the core committee looked at the results and found the community wasn't very willing to support the building or renovation to any of the buildings when a large price tag was attached to the plan.
The core steering committee is planning a meeting with associates from the architecture firm Tower Pinkster Titus, who has been working with the district throughout this process, next week to look at more plans at to what exactly the district would be getting for its money. The committee is looking to make its formal presentation by October to the board of education.
Ezell said the fact that the district could do $67 million or $104 million worth of work for the same millage amount "weighed heavily on our (the core group's) decision-making."
It would also fulfill the district's "long-term plan without having to go back to the public for more funds in the future," he noted.