Geary USD 475 Board of Education member Dr. Anwar Khoury supports building a new Junction City High School, but before he can vote in favor of that move he wants assurances in writing from federal government officials guaranteeing that heavily impacted military aid targeted for the the district is going to be there.
Khoury stated on Monday, “Absolutely. That’s what I asked in our Board meeting today for our superintendent to provide us whatever concrete evidence he has in writing from the heavy impact federal government board to us so that we are assured that we will get paid that $27.3 million in 2018, 2019 and 2010.” The funds would be spread over that three year period and would be used to finance a new high school. The district already has additional heavily impacted military aid money that has been received in the bank ready for use if the project gets final approval.
USD 475 Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Corbin Witt noted he could not give an absolute guarantee on anything but made it clear in a JC Post interview that district officials are confident the federal money will be there. “We get the best information we can, and so we’ve tried to go through and talk to everybody that we know of….what is the future, do we have anything to worry about, is there something that we can get in writing, and we’re working on that.” Witt also stated it’s hard. “Not too many people in Washington want to give you things in writing. ” Witt added district officials “feel very confident” they will have the money. We’ve talked with the people who are in the know at the federal level, and they say you’re good to go so you go with the best information you have but I don’t know if you can ever give anybody a 100 percent on anything.”
Board of Education member Brian Field said there is enough assurance available. “With the three fail safes that we have in place, and the biggest one being the referendum that we send out to the community, we’ll find out pretty quickly what the community wants.” Field feels a decision needs to be made and if the district is going to move on this project now is the best time.
In a referendum local voters would cast ballots on a proposed bond issue. Approval of that bond issue would allow the district to obtain state aid to fund 48 percent of the project, with the remainder of the money coming from the federal heavily impacted military aid funding. The goal would be to not increase the local property tax ley.
A JCHS Way Forward Steering Committee is studying the information on the need for a new school and will make a recommendation to the Board of Education on February 6. The options being considered include building a new high school at a new location, a new high school at the existing site, renovating the current facility, or undertaking significant maintenance to fix infrastructure related problems in the current building. Once their recommendation is submitted, the BOE must decide whether to pursue a project, and schedule a referendum on a proposed bond issue.