By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
KRTN Multi-Media Specialist sat down Thursday afternoon August 30, 2023, with Raton Schools Superintendent Kristi Medina and School Board President Jason Phillips to talk bonds and new school.
The conversation covered how the school system arrived at the decision to build a new school campus. Medina created a committee to go over the five-year master plan and create a new master plan for the next five years. As part of the discussion came the new school. As the committee continued to meet it was decided that a consolidated school campus was the best way to go, and the site selection committee determined the best site was south of the existing high school after comparing four other sites.
Why a new consolidated school campus? Safety, consolidation, ADA compliance, traffic, bus routes and pickup, drop off times, updated technology, upgraded heating and cooling systems, ease of teachers and peer tutors making the rounds between age groups without traveling across town are just a few of the many reasons a new campus was the chosen path. To accommodate new teaching methods, consolidated cafeteria kitchen and eating areas, and security, a new building will add to the security of the campus that simply can’t be met with the buildings Raton currently has. Age groups will be segregated in separate spaces whether it be by separate wings or buildings. Final design of the campus can begin once the bond issue is passed.
“The old schools were good enough for me or my kids”, When many of the people who have made that comment were in school computers and other technology were only a dream. Not to mention it is estimated that the 70+ year old existing school buildings will need at least $30,000,000 worth of repairs to fix everything that needs to be fixed. Once you start working on something as old as these school buildings you always find something else to work on. This also doesn’t fix the issues of ventilation and HVAC. There are several systems within the school buildings that repair parts are unavailable, they simply don’t make them anymore. The school district is unable to bond for that much money and would have to find the money to make the repairs on our own.
How much will it cost Raton residents? Not as much as many are suspecting. The bond issue once passed will only effect property taxes. If you have a home that is valued at $90,000 with a valuation of $30,000 your property taxes will go up by $139.50 a year that’s only $11.63 a month. For a homeowner with a $150,000 valued home that is valuated by the county accessor at $50,000 the cost will be $232.50 a year or only $19.38 a month. And here is the great part about this, the increase will only last four years.
Here is the catch, Raton must pass this bond issue and put the school district at its maximum bonding capacity for the state to accept the waiver, in order to give the school district over $75,000 to build the new campus. We pass a bond for $7,000,000 and the state will give the Raton School District $70,000,000 plus to build a new school campus along with a new track and a practice field which can later be turned into a new stadium. The state will build a practice field which is looked as a field for PE but won’t build the bleachers. The school will be responsible for the extras such as bleachers that would go into a stadium.
To summarize, pass a bond issue for $7,000,000 to maximize the district’s bonding capacity. Submit a waiver to the state and get enough money, about $70,000,000 or more to build a new school campus. And after four years the property taxes will go back to what they are today.
(Link to Raton Public School Bond Ballet Question Frequently asked questions)
