Facilities Committee Final Report

Dear D303 Community:

“I feel we’re at a crossroads,” that’s what D303 parent Alice Froemling told the School Board on Monday night, as she joined us at the Board table as a member of the D303 Communitywide Education Facilities Committee. “We have great staff, great teachers, great people who are in our schools every day working with our kids. But we’ve achieved our great success not because of our facilities but in spite of our facilities…. We have to do something.”

At Monday night’s Board meeting, district leadership and Committee members presented the Final Report of the D303 Communitywide Education Facilities Committee, which has spent the past five months analyzing, discussing, and prioritizing the needs at our schools and learning facilities, which we have been documenting for you on the Committee’s website.

“When we moved to this community in 2010,” Committee Member and D303 parent Joseph Donaldson added on Monday night, “we moved here specifically because of the schools.” Joe said the school bus tours that were part of the Committee process were “eye-opening” and played a big part in him changing his mind during the course of the process about the need for a communitywide facilities investment. “(Board Member) Becky McCabe posed a question at one of our last (Committee) meetings: ‘Did anyone change their mind from the start of this process to the end?’ I was one of those who did… There are a lot of people who are going to say… ‘Well, my kid’s done just fine.’ And my kid has done just fine. My other child is doing just fine. But there are other teachers out there, looking at our facilities, who aren’t just fine. So our community and our investment, we need to give that back and pay it forward.”

Committee Member Drew Glassford, the parent of a D303 graduate, told the Board he sees this process as an opportunity to significantly improve D303’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) offerings. “The best economic benefit and the demands of industry right now are for Career and Technical Education,” Drew said. “I’m a proponent of way more CTE…. There’s a big shift coming that we have to plan for, and we have to try and prepare our kids for it. I can’t say enough about the need for investment in Career and Technical Education and the value that we’re going to get as a community from it.”

The Committee was composed of more than 100 parents, students, staff, and community members from across D303. Their findings, which received nearly unanimous Committee support, consist of investments in 16 districtwide facilities projects to update and upgrade our schools and learning environments for our students and staff.

At the D303 School Board's charge, the Committee also examined the funding options and tax implications of potential facility investments. The Committee’s Final Report includes an estimated total cost for the 16 projects of $295.6 million, to be funded by a capital-improvement bond referendum. At current costs, the property tax increase for this communitywide facilities investment would be an estimated $777* per year–or roughly $65 per month–for the owner of a home valued at $500,000.

That is the Committee’s findings. The decision on whether to place a referendum on the upcoming election ballot is for the D303 School Board, which will review and discuss the Committee’s report over the next several months.

I encourage you all to read the Committee’s Final Report, review the presentation to the Board, or watch the full discussion with the Board and Committee Members.

The D303 School Board charged us with creating this Committee to give voice to the Community’s expectations and priorities for their schools. The Committee has made a strong, clear statement about what they believe is needed to meet those expectations.

Now it’s time for more discussion, at the Board table… and at kitchen tables and coffee tables across our Community. Please consider taking some time to learn about the Committee’s work. We have added an FAQ to the Facilities Committee website to give you additional details on questions you may have.

I am deeply grateful to the Committee Members for their time, insights, feedback, and dedication to their schools. I’m looking forward to continuing to work alongside them, our School Board, and all of you to determine the best path forward in ensuring D303’s schools meet the expectations of our Community.

Thank you,

Paul

*The estimated cost figures and associated tax impacts are intended to provide a general understanding of the potential referendum investment. All referendum dollar amounts presented are preliminary, planning-level estimates, and actual costs may vary based on interest rates, timing, and final project scope.