A question that has come up a few times is why didn’t we just move the football field over to the high school? When the bond got down to the last million, the committee had to decide on how to get the most out of that money.
We looked at four proposals: 1) redo the high school parking lot and add lighting at JHS/JMS, 2) Finish AC at the elementary school, 3) Move all football to JHS, 4) cabinets at Williams kindergarten rooms, flooring for Kindergarten, Boiler/pumps at the middle school, replace the chiller at the high school, replace the exterior doors in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th grade rooms, and add bathrooms at the new track. We voted by putting sticky notes on the option we preferred. We took the top two vote earners. This was option 4 (flooring, boilers, etc.) and option 3 (football field). We then voted on those two options and option 4 won overwhelmingly. The extra money that would be needed for the football field to be moved to the high school included the lighting, irrigation, fencing, and earthwork to name a few.
Why did the committee feel that way? It came down to a want or a need. Option 4 we needed. Option 3 would have been nice. You may say, “well, why put any money into athletics?”. Isn’t that a want? I would say it’s not. The bleacher flooring is giving way. We’ve had two accidents in the last three weeks. We lack ADA compliance. There is no handicapped seating or railing. It’s difficult for our seniors and disabled to get around without sidewalks. Our kids don’t have a locker room. Those are not adequate facilities.
The committee struggled with the same question but decided that the money would be better spent on infrastructure. If we had put that money into more athletics, then the bond would have looked like another athletic bond wrapped up in a different package. We didn’t want to do that. We wanted a conservative bond that focused on safety and security, updated classroom furniture and technology, and critical repairs/renovations. Option 4 does that, while still updating our existing field. And remember, if in the future we decide to move everything to a centralized campus, we can move the bleachers, lighting, goal posts, and scoreboard.
Lastly, I would ask that you look at the entirety of the bond. There will be some items that you may disagree with, but what do you think is positive?
Here is a pie chart of district expenditures and where the money is allocated. This is from the '22/23 school year. If you look at other districts across the state, they are all very similar. You will notice that 80% of our budget goes to wages, benefits, retirement, etc. The ESSER category was from the Williams Elementary project and that money is gone.
The maintenance category, the items the bond is asking for, is around 3% of the entire budget. Within that, you have many different items that the money has to go towards. For example: water/sewer, trash disposal, property/liability insurance, electric/gas, vehicle repair, maintenance and custodial supplies, etc. THEN, you have money for the projects that you want to address. This money is what goes towards anything that needs to be fixed, replaced, or updated. It amounts to around $150,000 which can fluctuate a little from year to year depending upon the needs.
This is why Michigan schools have bonds and sinking funds to address these projects. And again, the fund balance is there to cover paying staff over the 2 months we don’t receive state aid, emergency repairs, and cuts from the state.
Bond fact sheet that shows all the projects to be completed.
5 more days until the vote on the Comet bond! Here is some information to help you vote:
All voting in person is done at the Jonesville Fire dept. unless you live in Pulaski and then you go to your own precinct.
Absentee ballots drop off at the local Clerk's Office. Visit michigan.gov/vote for locations.
Register to vote at your local Clerk's Office. Visit michigan.gov/vote for locations.
You can find information about the bond at Jonesvilleschools.org.
VOTE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH!
Reminder that I, Superintendent Erik Weatherwax, will be at the Jonesville Middle School library tomorrow at 5:30 to answer any last minute bond questions you may have. If you are unable to make it, feel free to call me at 849-9075 with your questions.
Hope to see you there and go Comets!!!
This is a mock-up of the updates to the football field that will be done with the bond. It's not exact because there has to be more detailed planning, but it shows a possible layout that includes the new handicapped parking, multipurpose building, sidewalk, and lights.
The 0 mill bond vote is next Tuesday, November 7th. This bond will not increase your taxes and the rate will go down over time. It focuses on safety and security, updates to classroom furniture and instructional technology, and infrastructure.
Bond language explained
Support our Comet band!
Comet community! We have a high school student, Ryder Cornett, who is in FFA whose fair project on "Analyzation of Food Waste in Our Society won at the state level. As a result, he is now a national finalist (Top 10 in the U.S.) and is competing next week at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. He needs our help to collect some more data on his project.
If you could take a quick couple of minutes and fill this out to help him out that would be great: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DRCRjG2t-L-93n1PoEKuVoyr3hR9a9cwf3G3gqkm6is/edit
Go Ryder and Comets!
Quick bond FAQ! November 7th is the vote!
The bond vote is 2 weeks from today! 0 Mill increase that focuses on safety and security, classroom updates and instructional technology, and critical repairs/renovations. Go to jonesvilleschools.org for more information!
The bond vote is 2 weeks from today! Go to jonesvilleschools.org for more information about the bond.
This is the answer to the question, "Why didn't you just move the football complex to the high school along with the track?".
Great things are happening in 6th grade science. We studied the effect of different liquids on weathering of chalk. This was simulation of chemical weathering in nature on sedimentary rock. Students made great observations and developed hypotheses about those observations.
Here is a quick summary of the November 7th bond project. It is a 0 mill increase focusing on safety and security, classroom and instructional technology updates, and critical repairs/renovations.
The bond will not increase your taxes and they will begin going down in 2034 and continue to go down each year over the life of the bond. Visit Jonesvilleschools.org for more information!
This box along with valves and HVAC controls are what need to be replaced at Jonesville High School. When we upgraded our HVAC system a couple years ago, the problem we ran into is that the new system doesn't "talk" to the old system. It's too outdated. We had to update our software that ran both the high school and elementary because it ran on Windows '98, which is no longer supported or available so if the system went down we were out of luck. Right now, there are times that Vern has to climb up to manually move dampeners at the high school. It's another example of something that is just past its life. The committee selected this project because we need to finish updating our system and the new system can help with energy efficiency.
Here are some photos from Mrs. Martin's art class. We are very excited to be able to offer this to our middle schoolers this year! They are doing great projects!
One of the questions I frequently get about the bond is, "Why don't you use the money you have?" Here is a pie graph of our 2022/23 school budget. This breakdown is very similar to districts statewide. The vast majority of a school district's expenses go towards staff (wages, benefits, retirement, etc.). And that is as it should be. You want to put your money towards your people.
The rest of the money then has to be divided up between transportation, athletics, supplies, technology and maintenance. In the pie chart, the ESSER funds were spent on the HVAC project at Williams last year so that is not in this year’s budget. Those monies are gone. The safety and security money must go towards safety and security and is temporary. Our maintenance budget which is around 3% of our total budget goes towards utilities, grounds, maintenance and custodial supplies, water, trash, and repair/purchased services. The repair/purchased services portion is what we have to work with for major projects. In times of an emergency, we can dip into our fund balance if we need to.
So why not just keep setting money aside? The district does and has. However, any money you are saving for the future is money we can't use for the needs of today. Our facilities director (Tom) has done a great job of repairing what we can but he is limited by our budget, the size of the project, and facilities that are just past their useful life.
