{"id":2455433,"date":"2020-03-05T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=322168"},"modified":"2020-03-05T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T06:00:00","slug":"aspen-school-district-mulls-november-bond-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-school-district-mulls-november-bond-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen School District mulls November bond question"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Aspen School District is entertaining the possibility of asking voters in November to approve a bond proposal that would help fund such capital improvements as upgrading security, relocating the bus barn, building more worker housing and expanding learning, child care, athletic and performing-arts facilities.<\/p>\n

The idea, while in its infancy, has been explored in recent Board of Education meetings and was a significant topic of public discussion at the district\u2019s strategic and master facilities plan presentation Jan. 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still really in the general idea stage,\u201d BOE President Susan Marolt said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The board and district plan to take a hard look at floating the question to voters this fall, but numerous scenarios could stand in the way, from economic uncertainty to the state of the bond market, Marolt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere could be a very real possibility that it might not be a possibility this fall,\u201d board member Katy Frisch said at Monday\u2019s meeting, noting the volatility of the bond market.<\/p>\n

Or, as member Dwayne Romero noted, \u201cIt might be the opportune time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ideally the board wants to advance the question to the electorate this year so that its previously vote-approved bonds from 2005 \u201ccould just roll into the new bonds that we are looking for,\u201d Marolt said.<\/p>\n

The bond amount is another question that will be answered later this year, but Marolt said it would not result in higher tax rates to district residents.<\/p>\n

In addition to major upgrades to the campus, Marolt said an analysis is being performed to see \u201cwhat it will cost to maintain the buildings we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board ideally would want to adopt ballot language by late August or early September, according to a presentation interim superintendent Tom Heald made to the BOE at its meeting Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of the things that need to happen right away is that we\u2019ll want to work with our CFO, Linda (Warhoe), and the (district\u2019s) financial advisory board,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Also involved in the process has been the Cunningham Group, a national master-planning firm for major projects such as the one ASD might embark on, as well as Aspen architect Gilbert Sanchez.<\/p>\n

At the January presentation, Sanchez and architect Kari-elin Mock of the Cunningham Group outlined short-, mid- and long-term capital improvements the district is considering, based on the findings from focus group and BOE discussions last year.<\/p>\n

Some of the more pressing needs include relocating the school bus barn, which currently is located off Maroon Creek Road near the entrance to the middle school, and enhancing the libraries at the three school buildings, Mock said.<\/p>\n

Expanding the preschool operations also is being considered, as well as making the campus more energy-efficient, having more outdoor educational venues, and \u201cmore flexible and adaptive learning spaces,\u201d Mock said.<\/p>\n

Housing, ever a concern for area employers, also is a need for the ASD.<\/p>\n

The bond could cover all of the needs or a sampling of them, officials said, noting that will depend on the associated costs. Those costs will be estimated by a local general contractor, Cunningham Group and Sanchez, and McKinstry Co., a Seattle-based construction engineering company.<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Aspen School District is entertaining the possibility of asking voters in November to approve a bond proposal that would help fund such capital improvements as upgrading security, relocating the bus barn, building more worker housing and expanding learning, child care, athletic and performing-arts facilities. The idea, while in its infancy, has been explored in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 11:59:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}