The Geary USD 475 Board of Education will face a tough decision in February – to build a new high school, or not to build a new high school?

A JCHS Steering Committee has been tasked with making a recommendation to the Board in February – and if the steering committee favors a new school, what will the Board decide?

Anwar Khoury, Board member, said that there should be a delay before the new Junction City High School project is pursued. “The possibility that the mil levy is going to be increased is kind of turning off a lot of people and I’m glad we have the Steering Committee and hopefully we have a community meeting to talk about this, but we really have to have our finances completely together – maybe we’re still early in the process – and we need to get all that impact money together and then come to the community and have the State help us out with that.”

Khoury is referring to the Heavily Impacted Federal Aid the District has been receiving which would be used to pay for a new school. State Aid would then pay for up to 48% of the school under current law, but that could change after the 2017 session of the Kansas Legislature.

The uncertainty in what the State may fund after they meet in 2017 has Board member Brian Field saying – do not delay. “We have a window, where that 48% that we could get in State aid is there, we have a window of the Heavily Impacted Aid that could be coming in, but I think most importantly we need to think about the fact that – 10% that school’s going to go up – right now the money may be here, in three or four years it may not be at all.”

Right now there is a possibility of paying for a new high school without using local tax dollars.

Field adds that the schools are funded by “per pupil allotment” and as the District loses students, the money received goes down. “We know that we’re losing some of our students to surrounding Districts, and Districts that have a better high school facility…it’s not just military, the downsizing of the military is a reason we are losing students, but we are seeing that our enrollment is declining because we are losing students to other Districts and we need to find some ways to retain those students.”

There will be Town Hall meetings on the topic of a possible new Junction City High School in January. The Steering Committee will make a recommendation to the Board of Education in February.