By Casey Jarmes | The News-Review
SIGOURNEY – During the Nov. 12 meeting of the Sigourney School Board, the board discussed the bond referendum that failed to pass the previous week. If passed, the referendum would have raised property taxes to generate $9.9 million dollars, that would have gone towards needed infrastructure updates at the high school. The referendum received 52.35% YES votes, short of the 60% required by Iowa law.
Superintendent Kevin stated that, based on the input the public had given, that they believed the work needed to be done, but that many people voted against the referendum due to economic stress. He noted that they had received a majority of the votes, and stated that they would regroup and figure out ways to move forward. Board member Steven Seely asked if there was a number of votes they needed to have gotten for to justify trying again. Hatfield stated he’d always been told that, if a referendum gets 55-56%, then schools can typically get them to pass by tweaking or removing items. He stated that there wasn’t much they could pull out, but suggested doing fire alarms separate, explaining that they planned to do them at the same time as the other work because they were already going to be tearing apart the ceiling.
Board member Mike Bensmiller stated that the farming community was very stressed right now. Hatfield brought up the government shut down, which was ongoing on election day, noting that it was a tough time right now. Board member Tim Bruns stated that 90% of the complaints he had received had been about the tax increase, with the only other complaints being people asking why they hadn’t renovated the school before. Hatfield stated that this was difficult, because, in five years, people will ask why they didn’t take care of improving the school in 2025. Board member Adam Clark noted that, due to rising construction costs, renovating the school will cost even more if they have another referendum. Hatfield stated that it would, and that they will learn from this referendum and move forward.
Hatfield presented a chart showing Sigourney’s Certified Enrollment over time. He explained that this year was the first in the last 15 that Resident Enrollment hadn’t gone down. However, Sigourney has made this up due to many children open enrolling into the district, with the school having 93 open enroll in this year, compared to 67 open enrolling out. This year, the district served 579 kids, compared to 572 last year and 561 the year before that.
Hatfield stated that they would be sending a letter to Varsity Group, notifying them that the district would be discontinuing their contract, due to the new deal with Thunder Country for an advertising sign in the gym. Hatfield explained that the insurance study group was looking into leaving the district’s current trust and going to a different provider, due to rising premium costs, which went up $350,000 in four years; Jenny Gay from the insurance group stated that they would present to the board next month. Elementary Principal Deanna Spence stated that she would send out an interest survey to the community, asking parents who will have four-year-olds at the start of the next school year if they would be interested in a five-day a week preschool program; she stated that she wanted to know how many families were interested before getting a teacher and a classroom. Hatfield explained that, because the bond referendum had not passed, the school would now begin the process of redoing the roof over the wood shop, which was planned to be done as part of the referendum.
During an organizational meeting after the main meeting, the board swore in newly elected member Adam Sellers and said goodbye to former member Allan Glandon, who was not reelected. The board appointed Mike Bensmiller as president and Amy Wilcox as vice president.
