‘We may never spend the entire $50 Million opt-out.’ – Sioux Falls School District

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Well that didn’t take the school district much time. They pass a $50 million dollar opt-out, give Morrison a golden parachute and now this;

On Wednesday, he unveiled an 11-month timeline for assessing building needs at all grade levels.

The plan culminates next July, where school board members are expected to ultimately determine the scope of the project Maher is calling a “master facilities plan.”

It’s a plan that, in any form, will likely involve redrawing school boundaries and leaning on taxpayers.

“Do we run another bond issue?” Maher asked board members. “I think ultimately we’re going to have to.”

So not only are they busy spending the opt-out, they are planning another bond issue. It seems every government entity in Sioux Falls is making that sucking sound lately.

Want to save millions in public education funding in Sioux Falls? I’ll save you $118K a year in consulting fees; Give out FREE birth control.

 

Posted in: SF School District, Sioux Falls

2 Thoughts on “‘We may never spend the entire $50 Million opt-out.’ – Sioux Falls School District”

  1. anonymous on August 3, 2017 at 1:35 pm said:

    I’m guessing that 50m dollar opt-out is going to hurt his chances of getting any bond issue passed.

  2. Michael Wyland on August 3, 2017 at 2:48 pm said:

    Remember that the SF School District used capital outlay funds (i.e., repairs and maintenance) to build Roosevelt High, then announced the urgent need for a bond issue to repair our existing schools due to a lack of available capital outlay funds.

    One former school board member admitted at the time that the strategy was intentional because school district leaders believed that a bond issue to construct Roosevelt would be rejected by voters.

    The other point to keep in mind is that the population of the SD School District and the population of Sioux Falls are related, but not the same, for two reasons. First, there are other school districts (e.g., Tea, Harrisburg, West Central) that serve Sioux Falls residents. Second, a large minority of Sioux Falls school-age children are served by private, parochial, and/or homeschools.

    The Sioux Falls School District may well need a new high school, and it may well have necessary expenses in excess of available education formula-based funds. However, there are key questions to be asked and key assumptions to avoid when evaluating the issues.

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