SCMS referendum could top $11.5M

The Shawano School District might ask voters to approve up to $11.5 million in a November referendum to update the infrastructure at Shawano Community Middle School.

The School Board will hold a special meeting Monday to approve a final amount to replace the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system, and up to nine additional projects that will modernize the school. Much of the infrastructure is more than 50 years old, with some of it dating back to when the building was constructed in the 1950s.

Other projects the board will consider are updating the commons and office areas, renovating the kitchen, providing access to an interior courtyard, renovating the music rooms and creating ADA-accessible restrooms in that wing, modernizing the boys and girls locker rooms, updating the school’s smaller gymnasium, building a wheelchair lift for the stage in the main gymnasium and upgrading the mezzanine, renovating counseling and social worker offices, and replacing all interior doors in the building.

If the School Board decides to pursue the maximum amount, and voters approve, property owners will pay an additional 46 cents per $1,000 of equalized valuation, which equates to $46 for a $100,000 home. That breaks down to about $3.83 per month.

Craig Uhlenbrauck, a consultant with Miron Construction, noted that contracting costs are going up because the country is coming out of the recession, and contractors are not as hungry for work as they were a few years ago. However, the board will have the discretion to spend less than the $11.5 million during the bidding process for the projects, he said.

“We don’t want to put the district in a bad position and establish a dollar amount where they’ll be unable to address all of their projects,” Uhlenbrauck said.

The district’s credit rating, according to Moody’s, is Aa3, which is similar to other districts in the region, according to Michelle Wiberg, a consultant with PMA Securities. A recent refinancing of bonds from a 2008 referendum has put the district in good position credit-wise, Wiberg said.

Leann Gueths, a parent in the district, encouraged the board to look hard at updating the middle school, because all of the other Shawano schools have been updated or built within the past 20 years. Gueths went on a public tour July 22 to learn first-hand about the school’s condition.

“It was quite an eye-opening experience, and I was surprised by the condition of some of the areas in this school,” Gueths said. “It’s our responsibility to provide the children of this community an educational environment that provides them the ability to learn, to grow and to be productive citizens.”