By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

SENECA, Mo. — Seneca school officials are defending a nearly $10 million bond issue that will come before voters in November following concerns raised by Loma Linda officials.

The district’s plan calls for construction of a new elementary school near the existing elementary building at 1815 Saint Eugene St., and for additions to the existing high school that will house a new library and media center, a new cafeteria/commons area and a new gymnasium/auditorium.

But last month, the board of trustees for Loma Linda, which is in the Seneca School District, unanimously passed a resolution opposing the proposal for fear that it did not address “the long-term needs of the Seneca school system and its students,” according to the resolution. That resolution was discussed by the Seneca School Board on Aug. 19.

Loma Linda trustees contend a better option would be either to build a new high school on land the district already owns on the north edge of Seneca or to build a new elementary school farther north in the district, although not necessarily in the Loma Linda area, said Bruce Anderson, chairman of Loma Linda’s board of trustees.

Anderson said Loma Linda has supported all of the school’s past bond issues but that the trustees feared the current proposal only provided a “Band-Aid” for deeper overcrowding and traffic problems confronting the district.

“It’s not like we are anti-education,” he said.

Anderson said a new high school in north Seneca would help ease traffic and parking problems since all three school buildings are so close together.

“We don’t need to build in town; therein lies the problem,” he said.

Anderson acknowledged that the district’s worst overcrowding is at the elementary level, but he said a new high school could still ease that because it would mean the district would have four buildings over which to distribute its student population.

If not a new high school, then a new elementary school farther north would help relieve some traffic problems and overcrowding, Anderson said.

Survey says

Seneca Superintendent Rick Cook said surveys showed the current proposal garnered the most support from taxpayers and teachers, partly because it keeps the new school and additions either on or close to the existing buildings.

Cook said a building committee that advised the school board considered a new high school in north Seneca and a new elementary on north Missouri State Highway 43.

Cook said a new high school, while desirable, is not feasible at this time.

“There isn’t one person who did not want (a new high school), but you have got to operate within your means,” he said.

He said a new high school would cost about $15 million, while the district’s borrowing capacity is about $11 million. Provisions in the current proposal, meanwhile, address some of the high school’s most glaring needs with its cafeteria, library and gym.

In November 2006 and again in April 2007, school officials sought voter approval of a plan for construction of a new high school at Route U and Bethel Road. Both measures failed, and reviews showed that the proposed site of the new high school — specifically its location on the fringes of Seneca — was a critical issue, Cook said.

As for an elementary school on Highway 43, Cook said the building committee found that location would mean costly secondary bus routes. Surveys also showed support for keeping the new school closer in town.

Under the plan that will come before voters in November, the new elementary school building could accommodate 360 students and house grades four, five and six if voters approve the plan. The sixth grade would be moved from the middle school to the new building.

Cook said the district’s most acute overcrowding problem is in the elementary school. Currently, the district has one elementary building with an enrollment of 689 students running from kindergarten through fifth grade, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The district has had to use trailers at both the elementary and middle schools and for its Early Childhood Program.

The measure requires a four-sevenths majority to pass in November.







By the numbers

The November bond proposal carries an 85-cent levy hike that would mean an annual tax increase of more than $129 for an $80,000 house in Seneca. The district’s current levy stands at $2.75 per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of an $80,000 house pays $418 a year in taxes at that rate. The district has no debt-service levy.