School renovation, replacement costs compared

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Renovatiion vs. replacement.

The focus of the latest Cardinal Vision meeting Tuesday night at SSC Middle School was a comparison of costs if voters are asked to approve a bond issue regarding the seven buildings that make up the South Sioux City Community School District.

Should buildings be renovated, replaced or a combination of the two? And what would it cost to do it all?

Erin Heineman, the school district’s director of facilities and building operations, shared information on where the school district gets its financial resources, how it compares to other school districts in the state in terms of cost per student, and what kind of costs would be involved with the options.

The school district has not had a capital construction project since 1999, and all seven of the district’s buildings are have various needs — from immediate to critical — that need attention.

With more than half of those buildings more than half a century in age, something has to be done.

“We cannot just do nothing,” Heineman told the 140 in attendance. “Our community has grown and continues to grow, and our facilities are aging and getting more costly to fix by the day.”

In Nebraska, studies have shown that the cost per student is $16,214 and is paid for through a combination of state funding, local property taxes and federal dollars.

South Sioux City’s property tax per student (PTPS) rate is among the lowest in the state. While the PTPS here is $3,883, it pales in comparison to schools of similar size, such as Norfolk ($7,616), and is almost half of that in Homer ($7,626) and almost one-third of nearby Wayne ($11,695).

South Sioux City receives the seventh-highest amount of state aid of Nebraska’s 244 school districts, but much of that goes to funding operations that includes paying its staff, which takes up about 80 percent of the district’s budget. The district is among the most thrifty in the state, with its spending listed as the 49th lowest in the state.

The good news is that the district as zero in bond debt, as it made its last payment on the 1999 project earlier this summer. The bad news — with nothing having been done to address building issues over the past 25 years, the district finds itself in a position where it needs to do something.

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