As early as November, Jefferson City voters could see another funding appeal from the local school district to address what it describes as a critical need to expand facilities.
"Space needs are real. They're here. They're urgent," Jason Hoffman, the district's chief financial officer, told the Jefferson City Board of Education at its monthly meeting Monday evening.
At Hoffman's request, the board gave him the go-ahead to put together a request for proposals, seeking an underwriting company to give the district possible funding options.
He said the district currently works with an underwriting company, but has been looking to rebid the contract for awhile.
"So seeing that we're looking possibly at a November issue had sped up our process greatly," Hoffman said. "So we need to get someone ... that we have an agreement with that they're going to give us financial advice (on the) best ways of issuing debt, both the pros and cons of all our options, dates and that way we can come up with the best proposal possible to put before our citizens."
Meanwhile, the board plans to work quickly and simultaneously on a plan to present to the public to address the space needs. Two of the biggest needs are at the high school and for a 12th elementary school. Whether voters would be asked to fund both at the same election hasn't been determined.
Board President John Ruth wants the board to consider seeking a property tax funding stream that, similar to the city and county half-cent sales tax, could be reauthorized by voters every few years.
That could provide an increased funding stream that's more constant. Rather than wait until there's a critical need to come up with a different funding plan every few years, the district could maintain a 20-year plan, he said. That plan could be funded along with each iteration of a sales tax that would be ongoing, as long as voters reapproved it every few years.
Both the city and county do that with sales taxes that sunset after five years. Each time the sales taxes are about to expire, the city and county appeal to voters for extensions with the promise of a new set of projects. So far, voters have always approved those extensions.
The school district lost its last bid for more funding. In 2013, voters shot down a pair of ballot issues that would have funded a new high school. The last school district bond issue passed by voters was in 2007.
The district was caught off guard a few years ago when kindergarten classes started to inexplicably rise. From 2000-09, the total number of kindergartners each year averaged 639. Since then, more than 700 have enrolled each year, peaking in the 2010-11 school year with a class of 821.
The influx stumped the district, as well as a demographer it hired to help explain the sudden rise. Birth rates in the city don't account for the extra kids, and no large, new employers do either.
Ruth said the school district would "run into a brick wall" when the current fifth-grade class reaches Simonsen 9th Grade Center. "Major Field is going to have some major trailers on it if we don't do something," he said, referring to the field beside the school.