FAQ

This proposal is the result of a community-driven facility planning process that began in August 2021 when the district hired OPN Architects, MODUS Engineering, and Fehr Graham Engineering to conduct an assessment of both the elementary school and middle/high school buildings, sites, and infrastructures.

Following the assessments, the district convened a committee of community members, parents, business owners, and school employees. Over the course of the summer and fall, the committee considered the results of the facility assessments and past facility plans and arrived at a proposed solution that addresses the district’s most critical facility need – the elementary school – in a fiscally responsible manner.

The current elementary school, built in 1848, is one of the oldest structures in Iowa that continues to be used as an elementary school. There are not enough classrooms to meet Bellevue’s growing enrollment. Classrooms and corridors are undersized, and many spaces do not meet accessibility and code requirements. Systems, including the building’s boiler, are past their life and need to be replaced. The age of the building also makes it impossible to meet current safety standards.

The committee agreed on the proposed plan only after considering multiple concepts, including a combination of renovations and additions at the existing elementary school site. Building a new school at the middle/high school campus was ultimately the preferred solution for several reasons. One, the cost of renovating and adding onto the existing school was not less than building new. Two, the existing site is too small to accommodate a building, play areas, and parking that can meet modern teaching and learning needs. And third, due to the small site, construction and demolition would have taken place in phases over the course of multiple years, which would have been disruptive to learning.

Because the project is phased in order to reduce impact to tax payers, it will continue to be used for PreK through second grade in the short-term. While there will still be the possibility of code and infrastructure issues, fewer students in the building will relieve congestion and allow for the area’s oldest areas to be used less. The vacated 3rd and 4th-grade classrooms will allow five classrooms from the 1800 section of the building to relocate, while seven classrooms and service areas would still be located in that area. The district will also be looking at ways to minimize the use of the 1800s part of the building as students from grades 3-5 move to the new elementary building.

The district does not have final plans for the building following the completion of both phases of the plan. If PreK-2 is moved to an addition on the proposed 3-5 building, it could continue to be used in some capacity for district use. Alternatively, in many other communities in Iowa developers have repurposed historic buildings for other uses, such as community centers or housing. Nothing final has been decided.

To save money, the building has not been designed yet. In order to determine the approximately 37,000-square-foot 3-5 building and related project cost estimate for the bond vote, our architects combined input from Bellevue district administrators and current best practices for modern elementary schools. To-date the approximate square footage is the only detail that has been determined. The design of the school will take place following the March vote. At that point, our architects will spend time getting to know the community’s collective vision for this project. Final dimensions, exact layout, and general aesthetic both inside and out will be determined at this point in the process. These details will be determined by a core group identified by the school district.

The district will continue to transport students from the elementary school to the Bellevue MS/HS, along with also providing transportation to the new 3-5 elementary school building. The district has provided transportation like this for many years and has also added a few pick-up and drop-off locations in different areas of the community to assist families in getting students to school who live in town.

Once the bond passes, OPN Architects will start the design process, which includes detailed conversations about space needs, adjacencies, and aesthetic preferences. This will take 10 to 12 months. The project will likely bid in spring 2024. Any local contractor, general or sub-contractor, is able to bid on the project if they are able to meet bidding requirements. These requirements are typically related to being able to provide performance bonds that cover their contract. The district hopes that any and all contractors, including local companies, will review the bid documents to consider supplying bids. In Iowa, projects are publicly bid, so work cannot just be given to a specific contractor. Construction usually takes 12 to 14 months and could be complete by spring/summer 2025.

Public school district funding is a complicated issue. Districts receive some state funding, but the majority of property tax collected by residents of the district supplements state funding to pay for day-to-day operations, including teacher and staff salaries and benefits, educational and instructional materials, and operational costs of the district. While generally it is considered wise to save money for a rainy day – or in this case a large expense – school districts are not legally allowed to stockpile large savings accounts. As a protection for taxpayers, they are encouraged by law to operate in such a way that they spend all that they bring in each year. The general fund, where state funding and property tax funds are allocated, is like a checking account for day-to-day expenses.

The district does have access to two other funding streams. PPEL funds can be used for small-scale ground and building projects. The state also created the 1-cent sales tax (SAVE) funding mechanism for schools to use for smaller capital projects on an annual basis. While it is common practice for districts to leverage some of these funds to supplement bond funding for major projects, as Bellevue plans to do to reduce property tax impact for phase 1 and 2, it is not prudent to exhaust these funds on such projects. The district needs to ensure there are still funds available for unforeseen repairs like replacing/repairing roofs or purchasing new buses.

That is why districts turn to general obligation bonds to fund larger scale new or improved facility projects. Through a special election, voters of a district give their approval for the district to levy additional property taxes that will go directly to paying back the bond. The additional taxes cannot be used for anything other than paying down debt.

The district is not allowed to bond beyond the amount approved by voters. Of course, anyone who has ever taken on a construction project no matter how big or small knows that there are always unforeseen costs. In the architecture and construction industry, these are called contingencies. A contingency budget is built into the overall budget. Typically, at this point in the project, this is around 20% of the total project budget. This means that our budget is built to be flexible to accommodate unforeseen situations. Throughout the design process, there will be regular cost estimates, each with more detail that help the design team and district stay aligned with the budget.

OPN has a great deal of experience working on publicly bid projects, including many new and renovated school buildings. We have relationships with local contractors who are all well-versed in procurement phasing, especially due to current supply chain issues.

Addressing the need for a new elementary school has long been an overall community priority. This summer, the Bellevue City Council and Bellevue Municipal Utilities hosted a public community visioning meeting. The results of those conversations confirmed that schools are one of the reasons people choose to live in Bellevue and there is support for replacing the existing 170-year-old elementary school.

School facilities are integrally tied to a community’s economic vitality. According to a recent study by real estate search engine Trulia and Harris Interactive, the majority (57 percent) of parents with children under 18 would pay above listing price to live in the neighborhood with ideal schools. As districts around us improve their facilities and the community continues to look to the future, our school facilities will play a critical role in our community’s viability.

You may not have children attending schools in our district, but chances are you attended a school as a youth. You benefited because someone else who may not have had their own children in school understood that there is an interconnectedness to living in a community. We collectively pay for public facilities like schools because it is an investment in our shared wellbeing and in our future generations.

Why is the new school not an addition to the existing middle/high school?

This option was explored at multiple locations of the current building. Ultimately, the

committee decided a free-standing building was the preferred plan for the following reasons:

● A significant addition to the HS/MS could create circulation issues, particularly by

creating a separate entry for the elementary school

● An addition of an elementary school to the HS/MS could make it harder to add capacity

and/or program space needed for HS/MS programs in the future.

● The site’s slope on the west side of the building is less ideal for an addition.

● Potential opportunities for shared spaces are minimal because younger students require

smaller furniture, and the spaces are already fully scheduled.

Why is the new building being built to the east of the existing Bellevue MS/HS location?

● Transportation efficiencies to a single campus.

● Program partnerships between older and younger students.

● Access to track/field for younger students.

● More green space than is possible at the existing elementary site.

● Building on the site northeast of the building would require relocating the football

field and track.

● Existing gas lines to the north of the existing building limited the ability to add on

for future program needs.

● There is more potential for growth to the east.

● More efficient for shared-time teachers between the two buildings.