Commentary

Treating the Gilbert School District as Property Developer
by Helen D. Gunderson, Gazette editor

March 2, 2005

Annexation Meetings
The Gilbert city council will meet again on Wednesday, March 23, at 7:00 pm at city hall. During that meeting, there will be a public hearing on the proposed annexation agreement between the City of Gilbert and the Gilbert School District. If the council approves the agreement, Gilbert's boundary will be extended to the east, and the site of the proposed new middle school will become part of the town.

The proposed agreement is the result of several months worth of discussions between representatives of the city and school. On Monday, February 28, the city council and school board met from 7:00 to 11:00 pm in what sounds like an exhaustive, detail-oriented, and (at times) testy conversation about the annexation agreement.

A Matter of Perspective
Apparently, there was frustration on the part of the school board members because they perceived that the city was treating the school district like any other developer. Also, the board seemed to feel blind-sided by what it perceived as last minute requirements by the city.

The enrollment of the Gilbert district has increased by 55% since 1990 with a current total of 1,002 students. The new school will accommodate 400 students and is a major development. If any other developer approached the city council with a plan to build a facility, such as an apartment complex for 400 people, and wanted to the town to annex the land, the city leaders would be expected to be firm and thorough in preparing an annexation agreement. It would be the civically responsible thing to do.

The Gilbert district covers 48 square miles. Many students live in the northern part of Ames. Only 20 to 30 percent of the students are residents of Gilbert. The city council has a responsibility to the Gilbert citizens to ensure that residents of the entire school district bear the costs of infrastructure for the middle school site — such things as water, sewer, and storm water utilities; pavement and sidewalks; street lights; a traffic study and possible turning lanes or stop lights.

In Support of the Gilbert City Council Standing Firm
The council must take a strong stance now, considering that it has the authority to say "yes" or "no" to the annexation and is in a strong negotiating position. Once the site for the new middle school is annexed into the city, the council loses its leverage. If the council forgets to include something in the proposal or otherwise takes a weak stance, it's mistakes cannot be undone after the fact. Therefore, the council must insist on language in the annexation agreement that articulates what is expected of the school district, including the district's responsibility to pay for infrastructure for the new middle school site.

Unexpected Delays and Additional Costs
In April of 2004, 23 percent of the registered voters (786 of the 3,496 ) in the Gilbert district voted on a $8,275,000 bond initiative to build a new middle school, construct a vocational education addition and remodel portions of the existing junior-senior high school. In the final tally, 85 percent of the voters favored the measure with 673 saying "yes" and 115 saying "no." The total cost of the project was expected to be $11,870,000. more in Ames Tribune

The school district has encountered various delays in its progress toward seeing the new middle school become a reality. Some delay was due to discovering that Qwest had a pre-existing utility line easement that ran through the middle school site — land that the school had already purchased. Some delay had to do with a project manager for the engineering firm that school district hired to coordinate the middle school project. The manager was to serve as liaison to the city, but he and the city lost contact. It sounds as though the liaison eventually left the project. Some delay had to do with the the late letting of construction bids several months after the bond proposal was passed.

Additionally, there is concern about the cost of the middle school project. Actual bids to do the construction were $700,000 over what the school board had predicted. The board will also have to come up with a significant amount of additional funds to cover the costs of the infrastructure that the city council is requiring. A traffic study, in itself could cost quite a bit of cash. But if the traffic study suggests that a turning lane is needed, the turning lane itself could cost around $120,000.

A person wonders where the school district stands in relation to its maximum allowable bonding capacity and how it anticipates paying for these unforeseen additional costs. Perhaps the school board members are extra sensitive and/or nervous about the growing pile of money it will take to finish the middle school project, and those feelings were fodder for some of the testiness during discussions at the joint meeting with the city council. Still, the school is a developer when it comes to building a new facility to accommodate 400 students. Although, it is possible to make mistakes and underestimate a final cost, the onus of paying for the infrastructure resides with the school district.

Miscellaneous Note
It was interesting to learn that former Gilbert superintendent Doug Williams participated in the discussion at the February 28 joint meeting of the council and school board. He had been at the helm of the Gilbert schools for 24 years before resigning, effective June 30, 2004, to accept a business administration position at the Des Moines Area Community College. more in Ames Tribune

It was also interesting to learn that visitors at the joint meeting of the city council and school board were mainly people with a vested interest in the construction of the new middle school, including members of the Parent Teacher Organization.