Corning Bond Referendum
December 21, 2022
Corning Community School Bond Referendum
The Corning Community School district is planning a bond referendum vote for March 7, 2023.
The district is needing renovations at the elementary school and the baseball and softball fields.
The district needs to generate between 18.6 to 20 million dollars to renovate our existing
facilities, add square footage to our elementary school to enable us to move our Early
Childhood Education Center to the elementary school and expand our programs, and upgrade
all HVAC. Our existing ECEC building will be repurposed and will be available to house classes
during construction. Once construction is complete, we will also consider using the building for
a more significant alternative education center or CTE classes and/or as a rental property for
local businesses.
The district has scheduled two public Q & A meetings on January 11th and February 28th at 6:30
p.m. at the high school auditorium. Tours of the elementary building will be available preceding
the meetings at 5:00 p.m. Our project team and staff will be available to answer questions from
the public.
I wanted to share a little background information leading up to our first meeting. The district
contracted Estes Construction for a Facility Needs Assessment of all our properties in the fall of
2021. Once this information was available, I identified projects the district could add to our five-
year facility plan. Projects from this plan are paid for using SAVE (Secure and Advanced Vision
for Education, formerly one-cent sales tax) and the school's physical plant and equipment fund
(PPEL) to do smaller projects. The board identified urgent needs we needed to address and
determined the needs would require a bond referendum. The board appointed a community
committee to work with Estes Construction and Schemmer Architects to prioritize projects for
the bond project. The community committee met for six months with the project team in open
public meetings. The committee members and public toured our facilities. The elementary
school became a primary focus because of concerns ranging from restrooms that were not ADA
(Americans with Disabilities Act Standards) compliant to plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. They
also have included the beloved wooden playground structure, which many have questioned.
We would love to be able to keep the structure, but we have students we serve that are unable
to enjoy the structure because of their disabilities. Other parts have fallen into disrepair even
with yearly repairs and maintenance.
The baseball and softball fields have outdated dugouts, press boxes, bleachers, and drainage
issues every summer. We need to update these facilities so our students/athletes can be proud
of the facilities they play on. New restrooms will be made available to the public, which will be a
part of renovating the west pod. We will have ADA compliant walkways to get to the restrooms
instead of mountain climbing up the hill.
The last thing I want to touch on is the vote. I am not legally able to tell you which way I think
you should vote, but more importantly, in my eyes, I am not going to tell you how to spend your
money. I am here to update you on the district's needs and how much it would cost to repair
and renovate our district facilities. Our youngest learners use these facilities nine months out of the year and the last major renovation to our elementary was twenty-one years ago when we put in new tile and heat pumps.
When you decide to vote, however you choose, remember this scenario on recent trends in
construction prices. Villisca put in new football lights in 2017 at the cost of $75,000. The
Corning District will replace the thirty-one-year-old football lights this spring at the cost of
$230,000. Construction costs are not going down and we do not want to be in a situation where
it could become an emergency to pass a referendum to keep our building operating.
To find more information on the proposed bond, you can go to www.corningschoolbond.org.
This website is set-up for you to enter your questions and we will respond with answers. We
also encourage you to attend the meetings to get your questions answered.
With that said, please exercise your right to vote on March 7th . Be an informed voter, look at the
information we provide, and then make your decision. Thank you for being a supportive
community to our school district!
