The Aurora Public Schools Board of Education is set to vote this week on a plan to deal with overcrowding across the district, an approach that could include some financial risks.
Earlier this month, the APS board heard detailed presentations from the district’s staff regarding a trend in increasing enrollment and shrinking capacity. More than two-thirds of APS elementary and P-8 schools are at 90 percent of total capacity. Enrollment is projected to increase by 1 percent to 2 percent annually for the next three years.
Superintendent Rico Munn and other officials have recommended a plan that includes the construction of a new P-8 school at East Sixth Avenue and Airport Boulevard. The recommendations also include plans to design a new building at Mracheck Middle School. The board is set to vote on the recommendation during its meeting Dec. 17.
Funding parts of those plans is the tricky part.
APS isn’t the only local district to face problems tied to growing enrollment and limited space. Last year, the Cherry Creek School District passed bond elections worth $125 million in part to add capacity to existing high schools. That money added a new wing to Grandview High School worth $6 million and a wing to Cherokee Trail High School worth $7 million.
But the strain on capacity at APS comes at a difficult financial time for the district. State laws regarding debt burdens and assessed value limit the district’s ability to go to voters with another bond election in the near future.
APS officials have dismissed the possibility of a bond election until at least 2016. Though the district will technically be able to put a bond election to voters after debt payments earlier this year, the tax hike under such a plan would be significant.
“There is kind of a political angle to it,” said APS Chief Operating Officer Anthony Sturges. “In theory, we can put a bond question on the ballot, but it would be a significant tax increase.”
That leaves Certificates of Participation as a funding option.
Using COPs would let APS take on debt without voter approval, using the new building as collateral in a lease agreement. The district could pay only interest on the building for the first five years, and could take a bond issue to the voters to start paying the principal amount after 2016. Officials tabbed yearly interest payments at about $1.4 million.
“If the board does the recommendation, we’re basically taking a gamble. It’s a calculated gamble that our assessed valuation is going to continue to improve to the point where by 2016, we’ll be able to put a bond question on the ballot,” Sturges said. “We’re also going to be hopeful that we can get the message to the public and the voters will support the issue.”
Despite the risks, drawing on COPs for funding isn’t an extraordinary move. The district used the approach to fund improvements at Aurora Central High School in 1988.
“I think a fast-growing district comes up against unique problems,” said Jane Urschel, deputy executive director of the Colorado Association of School Boards. “It’s not something off of the wall by any means,” she added, pointing to the use of COPs in the state’s Building Excellent Schools Today capital construction program.
Melanie Moreno, director of Vista PEAK Exploratory P-8, is willing to accept that risk. The proposed new school at East Sixth Avenue and Airport Boulevard would help address rapidly intensifying overcrowding issues at Vista PEAK. According to school officials, the building is near 100 percent capacity. The school has hired new teachers and looked for new ways to use a limited amount of space to address the issue.
The demand on the school’s resources has been dramatic, especially considering the campus opened as a brand new facility in 2010.
“When you experience that kind of growth in such a short period of time, it puts a lot of stressors on everyone,” Moreno said. “Our community and teachers have been very patient. We’re doing the best we can with the resources we have.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com