When I started in Monticello during the summer of 2016 the most popular comment was that we need to do something about our school facilities. Then in the development of the Strategic Operating Plan last school year this was such a theme that school facilities became an important part of the Strategic Operating Plan.
As a part of that plan we formed the School Facilities Committee during the summer of 2017 and began to investigate school facility options that would meet our educational needs in a financially responsible way. In November, the school board hired OPN Architect/Engineering to assist us in the development of this plan. The School Facilities Committee worked with OPN to assess the current facilities, get feedback from the community/staff, and narrow the list of possible school facility options. With the structural assessment, community information, and costing data that OPN provided to the School Facilities Committee it was obvious that we could not afford to make all of the facility improvements at once. We needed a multi-phase plan. In March and April, the School Facilities Committee considered all possible facility options and the data led the committee to one solution, to build a 5-8 grade addition on at the high school site. The School Facilities Committee then took this solution to the community to collect signatures to request the school board to call for an election. After collecting almost 300 signatures this solution was brought to the school board for final approval.
On May 9, the school board voted unanimously to call for an election to be held on September 11, 2018. This election will ask the voters of Monticello to consider approval of a 15 million dollar General Obligation bond to support the first phase of this project. The school board also committed 7 million dollars in Revenue Bonds which are funded through the current penny sales tax to keep the costs of this project to a minimum for property tax payers.
This website is committed to sharing the facts of this project, so please explore the documents and videos available. I hope the information here can answer all of your questions. If you still have questions or comments do not hesitate to send me an email: brian.jaeger@monticello.k12.ia.us
Thank you for your continued support of the Monticello Community School District.
Dr. Brian Jaeger
