We desperately need upgrades to our elementary school. However, the $93 million bond being proposed by East Lansing Public Schools (ELPS) should be significantly reduced. If passed as is, it will contribute to the large ELPS class sizes, will pose administrative difficulties and will expose ELPS to significant risk of an elementary school closure in the future. The main problems with the bond are…
- The five new schools being proposed (on the Whitehills, Donley, Glencairn, Pinecrest and Marble sites) are too large for the ELPS population. Excessively large school mean high construction costs, high operating costs (which are paid from the same funds used to pay teachers) and higher probability of a future school closure. In addition, not enough analysis was done in an effort to reduce the construction costs of these five schools.
- Neither the school board, the ELPS administration, nor the community bond committee has the expertise to understand the financial tradeoffs associated with alternative bond proposals and, therefore, relied on the project architect, construction firm, bond underwriter and lawyers for guidance. These profit maximizing firms clearly have a large financial interest in the bond proposal and passage. Unlike many states, Michigan does not provide objective guidance on school construction projects including the process of selecting the project architect, construction firm and bond underwriter.
- The bond proposal includes $10M to renovate Red Cedar without a viable, long-term plan as for how to use the space. The current thought to use part of the building to operate an elementary school with one classroom per grade and part of the building to operate a pre-K/childcare program (possibly in conjunction with MSU) involves significant programmatic difficulties, is very risky and will either subsidize relatively affluent parents with pre-K children or impose significant costs on the district’s general fund (resulting in larger classes).
I would like to bring attention to a letter written by Steven Haider - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BhOfPeJB23ZHVFRFdnVldSZVU . Steven Haider is a colleague of mine in MSU’s economics department who was also on the most recent bond committee. While you may not agree with his recommendations, he has the training to understand the tradeoffs associated with different bond proposals and his letter presents some of these tradeoffs in a clear manner.
Below are links to my concerns with the current bond and actions the school board /ELPS administration can take to improve the outcome if the bond referendum passes. I also provide suggestions on actions the school board /ELPS administration should take to ensure a better school construction bond referendum is proposed in the near future if the current bond referendum fails.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BhOfPeJB23T0hmcjdEWEYwTDA
Punchline: The $93 million bond proposal is too large of a capital investment and will result in less classroom resources.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BhOfPeJB23Y0IwRTZmbEg0R0U
Punchline: The $93 Million ELPS bond proposal is excessive because it was significantly influenced by those who will gain financially from its passage.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BhOfPeJB23MGpKN2R1UG9XZ1k
Punchline: Putting the School Bond underwriting and construction contracts out for competitive bid would save ELPS taxpayers millions of dollars. ELPS should not choose the bond underwriter or the construction firm based on prior relationships.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BhOfPeJB23YnRnVnRvemR6YWM
Punchline: If the bond passes, ELPS should not manage a childcare or a Pre-K program at Red Cedar because the school district would be subsidizing the childcare/Pre-K at the expense of K-12 Education. Instead, ELPS should rent the space to another organization that would be responsible for Red Cedar programming. If ELPS operates an elementary school in half of Red Cedar, ELPS must have an expert provide the analysis in terms of forecasting student enrollment by grade by school for the entire district.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BhOfPeJB23c2Jpb19PMEtITDg
Punchline: If the bond does not pass, ELPS should immediately form a bond committee of school construction and finance experts, as well as education experts, who do not have financial interests associated with ELPS school construction. The construction and finance experts should quantify the costs and benefits associated with different configurations, construction alternatives, and financing structures that meet the educational needs described by the education experts. A bond referendum that improves the buildings in a cost efficient way, while keeping class sizes small, can then be put forth on the November 2017 election.