Board of Ed President Divelbiss on the Bond Issue

The school bond proposal back in February addressed three major areas of funding needs for Bartlesville Public Schools: (1) continuation of past bond funding support for various repetitive and critical items in areas such as classroom technology, software, curriculum, maintenance and transportation, (2) replacing old portable classrooms at Kane Elementary with a permanent eight-classroom wing for the Pre-K and Kindergarten students at that site, and (3) a reconfiguration of grade groupings at our secondary school sites (grades 6-12). After the February proposal failed to gather the required 60% supermajority for approval (the overall “yes” vote was around the 50% level), the Bartlesville Board of Education and school administration spent a significant amount of time and effort in gathering input and opinions from various constituencies in the community about why one-half of the voters rejected the February proposal, and what should be our next steps. Based on that subsequent input, there appears to be general agreement and support in the community for the first two major areas noted above. Where opinions differ in the community appears to be primarily in the third area.

It is very important for the public to understand that spending in the first major area (technology, software, curriculum, maintenance and transportation) is critical to enable the school district to continue providing the high-quality and effective public education that our community expects and demands. These are not optional expenditures; we MUST spend significant amounts of money each year in these areas. Bond issues approved in the past have provided over $1 million per year of funding support in this area, but those past-approved bond funds will be depleted within the next year. Once that happens, and if new bond funding is not available, those expenditures will still continue and thus would have to be funded out of the school district’s General Fund.

As a long-time member of the school district’s Finance and Budget Committees, I can assure you that current expenditures out of the district’s General Fund contain no “frills” that could be easily eliminated. Years of reductions in funding support from the Oklahoma legislature have forced us to cut our spending areas down to what is truly essential to provide a high-quality education for our children. If the district has to move over $1 million per year of spending from bond funding to the General Fund, it almost certainly will result in fewer teachers in our schools and a large increase in average class sizes throughout the district.

Because of the urgency to obtain new bond funding for the first major area, and based on the general support we heard from community for replacing the old portable classrooms at Kane Elementary for our youngest students, my fellow Board members and I unanimously agreed to put those two major funding needs back out for a vote of the people on August 28, in what we are calling our “Essentials for Excellence” package.

The third major area (the possible reconfiguration of our grade 6-12 school sites) will continue to be studied and discussed with the community, but the school district administration is not yet in a position to make a recommendation to the Board of Education on that matter. Nothing in the August 28 proposal goes beyond the $12.7 million “Essentials for Excellence” package. Nothing in the August 28 proposal ties voters' hands in any way to any future bond issue.

Passage of the August 28 bond proposal will NOT raise your property tax millage above existing levels. As the last of the series of bonds approved by voters in 2007 are paid off, new bonds from this proposal would just take their place over the next few years.

Our community demands Excellence in student achievement from our public school district. The August 28 bond proposal will provide the funds necessary to continue providing the Essentials to our teachers and students in order to continue achieving that excellence.

Doug Divelbiss

President, Bartlesville Board of Education