EDITOR:
Thought I would follow up on a letter I wrote to you back in January and in October of 2014 on the lack of school enrollment growth at Platte County R-3 School District compared to what we are spending.
In 2014 when the R-3 district was projecting doom and fear about future massive enrollment increases, I wrote to explain the district was riding a wave of students from the building boom and in fact the wave would subside over the next eight to 10 years as those students left the district and enrollment would not increase at the rate they were promoting.
This month in the school newsletter known as “Platte County Treasures,” the district finally acknowledged that enrollment has leveled off, with a projection now of only 4400 students in the district in the next five years as opposed to the more than 6000 they were projecting 10 years ago. So, “I told you so.”
Now PCR-3 has a dilemma. More than $130 million tax dollars were spent to prepare for the 6000 students which are not coming, and they still need to finish the new high school when more bond money becomes available. The district has maxed out what it can borrow without more costly lease purchases.
What to do, what to do? Oh, I know, let’s just tell everyone the current buildings are in poor condition and we have to have more money to tear them down and finish our projects. This is my next prediction and it will also be correct.
I can be pretty sure of this based on the facility assessment scores R-3 just mailed us. This assessment shows the Platte County High School and Paxton are in terrible condition. Roofing C-, Electrical D+, Plumbing C-, Mechanical D- and it goes on.
Problem is taxpayers are still paying the debt on $7 million spent to upgrade many of the mechanical and electrical infrastructure at these very schools less than seven years ago. So how are they now in such crappy condition? (Keep reading).
This very newspaper did an article on the $5 million dollar upgrade project with the majority going to the high school. Paxton on top of the $5 million has had another $600,000 spent on it since 2016 to upgrade electrical, HVAC, plumbing and to redo the kitchen. Of the eight categories looked at for Paxton only two show a grade of a B, the others are C or worse.
As for the roofs C-, the inspection done by the district from 2013 says a roof should last 20 years. We then spent over $135,000 on Paxton’s roof in 2014 and the high school has had about $800,000 spent on it in the past 10 years but it still shows a C- for roof condition, with the same for Paxton.
R-3 used several companies to access the condition of the buildings for their report to the “long range planning committee.” One of these companies donated over $5,000 dollars to the PAC that helped push through the last bond issue to build the new schools, a PAC ran in part by the R-3 communications director. No conflict here. LOL. “Hey Mr. Vendor (who will make lots of money if I build another new facility), how do you think this old building looks?” “Do you think it should be replaced?” Wink wink.
So with this information I feel pretty sure that in just a few years I will once again get to say “I told you so.” Unfortunately my guess is I will be doing it in front of a large new school with lots of empty space.
I will post some of the supporting documents for this letter on the PlattecountyR3facts.com Facebook page and all are located on the school’s website.
--Kirby Holden
Rural Platte County