The Española School Board is currently weighing the pros and cons of asking voters to approve a $21 million bond that would earmark money for specific projects, including the Velarde Elementary School renovation project.
If the measure gains Board support, the District will hire a consultant to evaluate Velarde Elementary, Hernandez Elementary, San Juan Elementary and Chimayó Elementary schools.
The purpose of the evaluations would be to determine how much money it would cost to complete the repairs identified in the District’s Facilities Master Plan.
Leo Valdez, the District’s financial consultant from the national firm of Hutchinson, Shockey, Erley & Co., said the District could hold a bond election as early as September 2018. If the measure passes, it would secure the money needed to make most of the repairs.
He said once the voters approve the measure, the District officials could issue the bonds over the course of four years.
“If you were to have a bond issue in September of next year you could issue $21,325,000 in bonds,” he said. “You can’t issue all of them right away. You will notice the capacity grows over time, as you pay debt off.”
Valdez said unlike other Bond issues in the past that took the “kitchen sink” approach, the new bond question would contain specific instructions for how the money is to be used. Both the 2003 and 2011 bond issues were presented to the public using the “kitchen sink” method.
“Typically, what you have, when you have a bond, is you have a kitchen sink question, which means you can use the money for any lawful purpose,” Valdez said. “Instead of the bond question saying you can do anything, the verbiage would say you are voting for Velarde, $2 million, or you are voting for San Juan, $2 million.”
He said the only drawback with that approach is, if the bond passes, District officials would not be able to use that money for any project other than the ones outlined in the Bond question.
Board member Pablo Lujan criticized the kitchen sink approach because he said it could eventually tie up much-needed revenue.
“Let’s just take San Juan for example, or even Hernandez or Dixon, they all rank about 400,” he said. “If you specify that in that bond election in 2018, for $21 million, you are going to tie that money up waiting for a state match to move the project forward.”
Most of the District’s Capital Outlay projects would be eligible for a state match.
The only caveat, in order to get those matching funds, is, the project must be in the top 100 of the state’s Public Schools Facilities Authority New Mexico Condition Index. The list prioritizes the schools across the state for matching funds.
The projects would be tied up until the school needs assessment dropped enough to where they are eligible for matching funds. If a school meets the matching fund criteria, the state will pay 67 percent of every dollar used to pay for the renovations.
Lujan said he understands why his colleagues would consider seeking a bond that specifically allocates money to finish the Velarde project, but he believes the proposed solution would hurt more than it helps.
“With Velarde, it makes total sense,” he said. “You have community members that have been upset over the project for many years — even before 2011. I understand putting Velarde in there, but when you are starting to tie up all the other projects that are 400, that is a concern.”
Valdez said as far as the Velarde Project is concerned, the District could have also asked the Public Schools Capital Outlay Committee for a loan for the project once the District uses the remaining money from the 2011 bond.
However, any loan District officials receive from the Committee would have to be leveraged against future bond sales.
All the District’s voters would be able to participate in an election, so he said school officials would have to convince residents that passing the measure is in the students’ best interest.
“The entire District gets to vote, not just the districts impacted,” he said. “So I would say go to those voters and say, ‘Please vote for this because you did get your school in Alcalde and in Fairview and you did get this and you did get that.’”
Velarde-area resident Christy Roybal said it is imperative that District officials find a way to repair the elementary schools because she believes the disrepair is prompting parents to enroll their children in schools outside the District.
“You all need to think about the elementary schools,” she said. “We are losing students fast and furious, to Pojoaque and Los Alamos. So if you don’t get those schools fixed, you won’t have enrollment. It just won’t be there.”
However, she said she doubts the bond will pass, especially in Velarde, because the District has failed to live up to past promises to repair the school.
The renovations
District officials project they need about $12 million to complete a standards-based renovation at Chimayó Elementary.
A standards-based renovation would include a complete renovation of the entire school, such as plumbing and electricity.
It is currently ranked 24 on the Index, which means the project is eligible for matching funds.
Hernandez is also slated for a complete renovation at an estimated cost of $15 million. Hernandez has an index ranking of 408, which means it would have to fall several hundred spaces for the state to consider it a matching fund priority.
Once District officials figure out the funding sources, crews will remove portables and complete other preventive maintenance.
However, District officials would have to hire consultants to help them determine the price of that project.
The last project on the to-do list is the Velarde standards based renovation, which is expected to cost anywhere between $2.1 million and $2.2 million. The repairs come to about $39,000 per student.
Area-resident Joseph Sena said it is going to be a hard sell, getting voters to approve the District spending $39,000 per student for the project.
“I am not sure how you are going to sell this,” he said. “How are you going to sell it, when it is $39,000 for each kid in Velarde, and the guys in Hernandez are getting $1,500?”