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Show . ' ' .-I. tirs T Deei SehI Bond Tues. By TOM BLSSELBERG FARMINGTON For the seventh time in 20 years, Davis County voters will be asked to approve a school building bond proposal next Tuesday. THIS TIME around, $40 million in bonding authorization authoriza-tion is being asked to allow for continuation of the district's building program needed, district dis-trict officials emphasize, to meet continued growth. It's estimated an additional 12,000 students will need schooling in the county in just five years, or 400 additional playrooms. DISTRICT projections put the majority of newcomers in that bracket 8,500 following follow-ing a trend over the last few years where ten new elementary elemen-tary schools have been built or started since 1971, along with two junior highs and one high school. Additions have , affected 16 elementary and 17 ? secondary schools. The election has received endorsement from the county's coun-ty's mayoral Council of Governments Gov-ernments along with the North Davis Chamber of Commerce Association and the Bountiful Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors. EMPHASIZING no planned tax increase for construction-related construction-related activities was Supt. Lawrence Welling. "I can do nouiing but assure the public"' our board of education has gone on record to say building proposed under this authorization authoriza-tion will be contained within the 18 mills of the present formula. for-mula. "I don't anticipate the board doing anything different than that. It needs to be understood that (the previously approved voted leeway authority) is for maintenance and operations, (such as for salaries). It doesn't relate to these same budgetary restraints" leading to Tuesday's vote. UNDERLINING the need for more facilities, Dr. Welling continued in a telephone inter-vies, inter-vies, "Our pupil-teacher ratio ra-tio , at present, and over the last two-three years, has really increased substantially. You can only solve a problem of growth so long by making those increases. I believe we're to that point where we wouldn't want to substantially add to that ratio." LOOKING specifically at school construction and related re-lated costs he says, "We don't build classrooms to last only 25-30 years. We're looking at a life cycle of 50-75 years. They'll be around long after those building them are gone. You can build for less money per square foot it simply means you'd be building again." With the lower construction costs possible, currently, construction con-struction now rather than later will be advantageous, he adds. NOTING AN emphasis on new classrooms in building needs, Supt. Welling says, "When you talk about buildings build-ings with a lot of frills we're not building swimming pools, extensive auditoriums (any) in our junior high schools a lot of things we find in the educational educa-tional family very close around us. What we're attempting to do is meet the basic needs of students with those classroom accommodations." Should the $40 million authorization au-thorization gain voter approval, approv-al, the board anticipates selling portions over the next five-seven five-seven years. Twenty-seven bond sales have been held for the past six bond authorizations. authoriza-tions. The last bonds authorized autho-rized in the 1979 $35 million bond election have been sold. BOARD OF Education Vice President Dee Forbes compares com-pares the bonding, as do others, to mortgaging a home. And a tax increase isn't needed based on current and projected tax revenues generated each year. In addition some of the bonding principal is paid off each year. Advantages to bonding outlined out-lined in district-prepared materials include providing funding when needed and qual- ifying the Davis District for state critial building aid , totalling totall-ing more than $2 million last year. On top of that, bonding proceeds can be invested before be-fore and during construction, generating additional monies. IF BONDING isn't used, several alternatives could be considered: busine to other districts, renting space in other buildings or making better use of existing facilities. Schools make regular use of media centers, gymnasiums and cafeteria as classrooms. Elementary school space is currently used to 95 percent of capacity. Twenty-eight portable port-able classrooms are in use, as well. EXTENDING the school day through use of additional class periods, allowing some students to come earlier and-or stay longer with others coming later, is among options available. avail-able. Double sessions, where some attend in the morning and a like number in the afternoon afte-rnoon for a shorter than normal nor-mal time and year-round schools could also be implemented im-plemented and are being studied. stu-died. The need for more classrooms clas-srooms is countywide, with planners estimating a population popula-tion of nearly 300,000 by the year 2000. The county's census cen-sus grew from just below 100,000 in 1970 to nearly 150,000 ten years later. |