It is time to for the WCS School Board to work harder on the $100 million building program. The taxpayers can not pay for nor support a $65 million bond just for four elementary schools. This still does not address the remaining elementary schools, middle schools and the high school. I am not sure where the Board thinks these children in the proposed overcrowded elementary schools are going after they finish sixth grade. Most of these children that are in these elementary schools today will be at the middle schools or high school by the time this project is finished, and won't this cause overcrowding in these buildings, and what will be their plan to take care of these buildings?
This will cost all tax payers $0.21- $0.26 per $100 assessed valuation depending on where you live. What that translates to is if you have a $150,000 home, your increase in taxes will be $315-$390 per year just to fund this portion of project ($150,000/$100=$1,500, $1,500 x $0.26 = $390). This does not take into consideration what your taxes will be based on the new assessed valuation that we do not tax bills for yet. These are tax dollars over and above the increases you will see for those upcoming tax bills.
Our senior citizens are the unfortunate victims in this latest attempt. Not only are they being hit with higher gas prices, higher food prices, higher medical costs and already higher property taxes, we are asking them to pay this bill, too. Other people that live on fixed incomes will also be hit hard, and even those of us that are currently working with families trying to make end's meet will be hit even harder again. I do not know how in good conscience that this Board voted to do this at this time with so many unknown factors facing all these families. Mrs. Hearn is the newest member of the Board and by her vote of "no" on May 21, she has figured out this $65 million bond issue is not acceptable to the taxpayers in her district as well with others within the school corporation boundaries.
At this point, unfortunately, the only way to stop this $65 million bond issue is to remonstrate against this current building plan and force the WCS Board to come up with a better and a more cost-effective plan that will impact more of the schools than just these four elementary schools, and be reasonable to the taxpayer.
The current Board had lost focus and ignored this problem since 2004. The attempt was made in July 2003 to correct these issues, which at that time did not require a tax increase to build a new Jefferson and remodel Claypool. At this point, this is all history that can not be changed, so the only thing that can be done is require this Board to work harder to come up with acceptable plan that minimizes the costs to all taxpayers but benefits teachers, administrators and most of all, the students of Warsaw Community Schools.
