Central superintendent proposes bond election for improvements

David Eads, superintendent at Central Public Schools, hasn’t slept too well since he started his job on July 1. He finds himself regularly waking up at 2 a.m. to jot down in a bedside notebook ideas that occur to him during the night about how to improve Central’s facilities and how to make the school better.

“I’ve been sleeping, living and eating this since August 1,” Eads told Sequoyah County Commissioners at their Monday meeting as he detailed his plans for a bond election in 2024. “I wake up at 2 a.m. with a notebook by the bed for new ideas. I’m on a mission.”

Eads, who has identified 18 items needing attention, including almost doubling the seating capacity at the Central gymnasium and constructing an agriculture building for a new ag program, told the commissioners he wants to fund the improvements utilizing school funds as well as tax increases for landowners.

“We’re looking at the possibility and probability of the combination of a bond and either 10% to 12% tax increases for the landowners, and a half million [dollar] leasepurchase, with $200,000 from the building fund,” the superintendent explained. “They haven’t passed a bond in 30 years. But I’m not going to put that burden on the landowners. I’m splitting the cost with the district. I’ve got a three- and a fiveyear financial plan, facility improvement plan to correlate with that, and I’ve projected it out to Year 8 and Year 10.

“The school board has already approved the 18 projects we would like to complete in the next 10 years. But to begin that, we’ve got to start with the initial bond, because they haven’t bonded in 30 years. If I bond it for the full amount, it’s gonna be in the upper 20 percentile range of tax increases. Not only is that not fair to patrons and landowners of the district, secondary to that is it’ll never pass. If I can split the difference with the district through $700,000 district funds, $500,000 of it lease-purchase, that will split the cost of the initial one — actually the public would either be paying anywhere from $650,000 to $770,000 on the bond, that’ll get you 10,000% increase at $650,000, $708,000 at 11% tax increase, $770,000 at 12% tax increase,” he said.

“The district is putting forward $700,000, with the option to go as high as $750,000. Projecting out on a three- and five-year financial plan, we would recover the building fund and pay off the bulk of the lease-purchase. For another small project, we’d be looking at a $394,000 bond at a 4% or 5% tax increase, with the district at that time being able to save up and throw another quarter of a million building fund at it. Taking that forward by Year 9 or 10 at a 2½% decrease, then we’d finally be at full bonding capacity at 0% tax increase thereafter.

“But I think it’s key that the district foot half the bill on each project we do to be fair to the patrons of the district and the landowners while still servicing the students and the community making the improvements we need to make.”

Eads said possible voting dates would be in February, April or August. For the current year, he said a February election would benefit the school the most.

“I’ve been working with architects, construction management, auditors, fire marshal and lawyers since August 1, trying to get hard numbers on this. If I can get those prior to the deadline for calling a bond, then we’re looking at trying this in February. If not, depending on the numbers that come in, then we will either move to April or August,” he said.

Of the 18 projects he has identified and the school board has approved, the primary projects for the first bond include renovation of the gym and creation of an Ag shop and the beginning of an Ag program, Eads told the commissioners. Eads was hired in February, but didn’t assume his post until July 1. He said during spring break, he toured the campus and school facilities, talked to people and started creating a list of what he thought the district’s needs were. After July 1, he and the board prioritized the needs.

Rogers

“Of those 18 items, many of them will not take a bond or anything else. I’ve got us on projected timelines for building fund savings to where we can do the small projects at Year 7 or at Year 3 or at Year 9, completely separate from the bond project,” Eads said. “So when I say 18 items, that sounds massive. A lot of them are smaller. Some of them we’ve already completed. But the primary, larger target, obviously, we’d have to go bond, building funding and lease-purchase.”

District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers asked about participation by the Cherokee Nation to help offset some of the costs.

Eads explained that, if voters were to approve the bond and constructing an Ag building was undertaken as early as mid-July 2024, a six-inch water line would be mandated, which is a major obstacle. It is at that point that he would approach the Cherokee Nation about financial help in running a water line from the west side of North 4670 Road to the east side.

That’s when Sequoyah County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Teague offered a solution.

“I wrote a floodplain permit for the Sequoyah County Water Association, and they’re having a brand new water line down in front of Central School. It’s just now starting,” he said. The project is to extend north from U.S. 64 past the front of Central School, ending at the fire department.

Rogers suggested that Eads contact Vance Moody, SCWA manager.

“I appreciate your foresight there,” the commissioner said. “They’ve needed an Ag program out there forever.”

Central’s gymnasium would be expanded if the school district pursues a bond issue, and voters approve it.

Rogers then turned his attention to renovation plans for the gymnasium.

“The gym, I’m really surprised that some of these games that the fire marshal hadn’t walked in and said ‘Hey, we’re shutting this game down,’ because of the size.” The gymnasium currently seats 369.

“It’ll expand the home side 12 feet. I’m limited by code on the visitors side, but reconfiguration of the inside expansion with 12 feet, that’ll give us an additional locker room and coaches office, and it’ll gain me 130 seats on the home side. If I reconfigure the visitor side, it’ll gain me another 45 and another 65 on the east end. So it currently seats 369, so we’d gain another 230 seats. It’ll also allow me to expand the concessions, and that’s just the gym part. It won’t quite double the seating, but it’d be close,” Eads said.

Theft problems

Rogers then asked Eads about the possibility of Central hosting a presentation by Dale Frech, safety director for the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma (ACCO), to address the problem of stop signs being stolen on county roads.

“We just had a really bad accident out on 1060 where somebody stole a stop sign and they blew through” the intersection and T-boned another vehicle, which resulted in a little girl being badly injured, life-flighted to Tulsa and undergoing multiple surgeries.

“That’s what these young kids don’t realize,” Rogers said of the consequences of such actions. “I know it’s fun and games, but when you have a stranger coming through there that’s not familiar with the road and they blow through the stop signs, what they don’t realize is that that could be their mom, their dad, their brother, their sister, their grandparents, their best friend that that could happen to.

“So I’d really like to try to touch base with the superintendents throughout the county and see maybe if we could schedule an assembly where we have Dale come in and do a presentation,” Rogers proposed. The commissioner said the presentation shows the aftermath and human toll of such actions, and that there have been instances where those who stole the stop signs were sentenced to prison.

“I don’t think they really think about that when they’re stealing these stop signs. I’ve replaced this particular stop sign probably four or five times already.”

District 1 Commissioner Ray Watts echoed Rogers’ observations. “We do it all the time. You better have a supply of stop signs.”

Other business

In other business, the commissioners approved awarding a bid for a 55foot steel span bridge on North 4790 Road for District 1 to Railroad Yard Services LLC in the amount of $199,627. The new bridge replaces an existing bridge located about 1.25 miles south of Old U.S. 64. RRY was the only bidder on the project, and the bid was opened Nov. 27.

Also approved was payment to Union Pacific Railroad Co. from the County Improvements for Roads and Bridges (CIRB) Fund for the Dwight Mission Resurfacing stage project. Approval is awaiting a signature authorizing payment.

The commissioners approved a letter of support to the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for Sequoyah County Jail.

The commissioners tabled approval of payment of a jail purchase order from fiscal year 2022 using fiscal year 2024 funds. Originally considered at their meeting on Nov. 27, commissioners are still negotiating the cost of transporting inmates by ambulance from the county jail seven blocks to the hospital, which is currently being billed at more than $1,000 per trip. Commissioners are still pursuing more costeffective alternatives to significantly reduce past and future billings. It was reported that Pafford EMS does not charge Sallisaw Police Department for similar transports.

One of the priorities for superintendent David Eads should voters approve a bond for improvements at Central Public Schools, is renovation of the gymnasium that will almost double its current seating capacity.