Blissfield board cuts auditorium, bus loop and more from plan

   The Blissfield Board of Education will give the public one last shot at renovating the school campus with low to no-interest financing.
   At Monday’s meeting the board approved a plan that will cut more than $3 million out of the plan rejected by voters in February. Because Michigan election law, the district can not change the ballot language that will appear before voters during the May 4 school board election. The board will still have to bond for the $12 million, which is expected to cost voters about 2.49 mills in the first year. But board officials pledged to cut $3 million from the project. The savings would then be passed on to taxpayers by virtue of a board resolution permanently reduce the sinking fund millage from 1.75 mills to one mill. The resolution is subject to voter approval of the bond. The voter approved sinking fun millage is in effect for 10 more years.
   In all, the new plan would save 1 mill on the February proposal. A mill is an annual one dollar tax on every $1,000 of taxable value. A home worth 150,000 would generally have a taxable value of $75,000. Under the old proposal, the owner of that home would have seen an annual tax increase of $187. Under the new proposal, the tax increase would be $138.
   The board voted 6-0 in favor of the proposal, which was recommended by the district’s building and ground’s subcommittee.
   The plans calls for the elimination of the renovated high school facade, the bus loop, the high school cafetorium, landscaping, monument signs, two new classrooms, some electrical upgrades and some technical upgrades. In all, the savings are pegged at $3,150.817, which is about the same amount of money raised by one mill.
   The district has less than seven weeks to educate the public on the plan. Complicating matters is the ballot language, which will appear exactly as it did on Feb. 23. The deadline for the ballot language was Feb. 23, before the district knew the results of the earlier vote.
   Trustee Larry Bausman said the language issue was unfortunate and that the district would have to do its best to get the word out.
   “There’s no deception here. There’s no covering up. Nobody is trying to sneak anything in the back door,” Bausman said. “By law, we can not change the language.”
   Trustee Brian McEwan said he thought the recommended plan cut in all the right places.
   “Based on my conversations with people and what I’ve heard, I think we’re cutting in the right areas,” he said.
   Superintendent Scott Moellenberndt said this would be the last opportunity for district voters to take advantage of the low or no-interest financing.
   “There are $3 million in savings there that we likely won’t have the opportunity to receive if we pass it up in May,” he said, noting that two school districts on the other side of the county were hoping to qualify for the kind of financing Blissfield is eligible for.
   During his report to the board, Moellenberndt said he was disappointed that Blissfield was one of the few school districts in the state to turn down the federal money during the special election Feb. 23. He said he hoped the cost-cutting measures would convince half of the no voters in that election to change their mind.
   Resident Renee Esterline told the board that she appreciated the board’s decision to scale back the project, but she said the economy will make it tough for some people to offer support.
   “There are some people out there with no job. There are some families that are down to one income. Proposing even just a little increase is adding to the payments of people who can’t afford it,” she said. “Who is going to pay there bills?”
   Moellenberndt said he understood the concern but, he said, also felt the district owed it to taxpayers to give them a chance to earn potentially zero-interst financing for the project.
   “If we have to come back here without that zero interest money a year or two from now, it’s going to cost us $12 million what only costs us $9 million today,” he said.
   In other news from Monday’s meeting:
   • Athletic Director Steve Babbitt updated the board on some of the highlights in the Athletics department. He presented certificates to the scholar-athletes from the winter sports season. To earn the honor, a student must play a varsity sport and carry a 3.5 grade point average. Earning the honors were girls’ basketball players Celia Coopshaw, Jenna Goetz, Laura Goetz, Olivia Keinath and Mackenzie Madsen; boys’ basketball players Bryce Denecker, Dylan Esterline, Devin Moore and Eric Schmidt; competitive cheerleaders Jennifer Sell and Lauren Yates; and wrestlers Dalton Goetz, Eric Ford, Tony Renwand, Ean Sablich and Garrett Salters.
   Babbitt also called attention to state-qualifying wrestlers Eric Ford, Christian Sablich, Chase Lewis and Dalton Goetz.
   Finally, Babbitt talked about the development of the Athletics section on the school’s website, www.blissfieldschools.us/highschool/athletics. The site is being used for updates, for athletic boosters news and other purposes.
   • The board took no action on Renee Esterline’s request to remove the site of the afterprom party. The prom is once again being held at LaRoy Hall in Monroe. The afterprom party will be held at the YMCA in Temperance.
   Esterline said she thought the afterprom party should be held in Blissfield, where it has traditionally been held. She said the thought having the party, which often runs until the wee hours of the morning, in a strange locale could present a danger to students driving to and from the event.
   “My son is going to be up at the crack of dawn and he’s going to play three games in a baseball tournament under the hot sun. I don’t think he should be driving around on roads he doesn’t know at three or four in the morning,” she said.
   School board President Noel Eisenmann said the afterprom party isn’t a school function and not subject to board approval.
   “It’s a parents and volunteers group that puts it on. The prom is a school function. The afterprom party is not,” said Eisenmann, suggested that Esterline talk with organizers about the issue.