On November 18th the Board of Education unanimously voted to seek a bond to improve safety and security, and meet renovation and maintenance needs. Millards schools are investments that were built to last. The average age of a Millard school is 41 years. Through regularly scheduled repair and renovation, they have retained their value and stayed efficient and useful for current educational needs.
Millard has always tried to follow a steady bond cycle which has allowed the district to update aging facilities efficiently without increasing the tax rate. The proposed bond amount is $158 million. This bond would not increase the tax rate. This is possible because of Millard's consistent bond cycle, commitment to refinancing bonds, and wrapping the district's debt cycle rather than stacking it.
Key Information
- The election is February 11, 2025.
- The bond would not increase the tax rate.
- The vote is by mail, and ballots will be mailed to all registered voters in the Millard community.
- Ballots will be mailed on January 21st and can be returned by mail or at the election office.
- To be counted, ballots must be received by 5 p.m. on February 11th.
All 35 schools would be impacted by the bond funds.
• Safety & Security - $77 million
• Interior Renovations - $40 million
• Facility Maintenance - $41 million
How do Millard’s finances work? In a broad sense, it’s good to think about Millard Public Schools finances in two different categories. General Fund Expenses pay for the day to day operations, including things like teacher salaries and utilities. Paying for facilities needs are largely paid out of bond funds.
What is the difference between a bond and a levy? A bond is a type of levy. Generally, the District has three types of levies.
- First, a general fund levy is what pays for day to day expenses (mostly employee salaries).
- Second, the special building fund levy is used for typically smaller capital projects and minor facility needs and capital maintenance in Millard Public Schools. Due to legal limitations within the special building fund, it is not an adequate source of funds to maintain existing district facilities.
- Third, a bond levy is used to pay back voter approved bonds for capital improvements. Millard has typically used the bond levy to fund its comprehensive facility maintenance and improvement plan.
Millard uses all three levies in order to maximize its efficiency and meet the educational needs of students and the community as Nebraska's most efficient per pupil spending district.
How do school districts keep up facilities and operations? The District is able to pay for some basic facility upkeep through the general fund and special building fund levies. However, to keep up our 35 school buildings, it is not feasible to do so from those levies without imposing a significant tax increase. Even then, certain legal limits on building and general fund levies may make adequate building maintenance impossible. Therefore, the District has traditionally gone out for bond elections to help pay for maintenance of their facilities, including roofs, heating and air conditioning systems, parking lots, interior maintenance, and everything that goes into keeping our buildings safe and in good shape for students and staff.
The district has been able to do this while keeping a bond levy that is among the lowest of urban and suburban school districts in Nebraska.
Why is it necessary for school districts to maintain their facilities? It is important to the educational environment to keep the facilities well maintained. In many ways, maintaining our facilities is not significantly different than a homeowner maintaining a house. If a homeowner fails to do preventative maintenance or allows elements of the home to deteriorate, it may cause additional issues and lead to even more costly problems over time. And, unlike our homes, school district buildings are subject to traffic and wear and tear from hundreds / thousands of students, staff, and community members using our schools nearly every day.
Why does MPS need to ask for a bond now? The district has had a longstanding cycle for the issuances of bond referendums to maintain facility maintenance, repair, renovation, and improvement plan. Historically, the district has had more frequent bond referendums at a smaller dollar amount than would be typical for a district our size. This allows the district to minimize the tax impact on patrons and increase the financial efficiency of its operations. Approval of the February 2025 bond would allow the district to begin designing and planning projects Spring/Summer 2025 with bidding Fall 2025 in order to obtain the most competitive prices for projects beginning Summer 2026. This planful approach allows the district to stretch the value of our communities investment in district facilities and other capital improvements.
How does this proposed bond generate $158 million without a levy increase? If the voters approve the bond in February 2025, we project that there will be zero bond levy increase (i.e., we will be able to maintain the current bond levy of 11.5 cents without an increase). That can be accomplished because of careful planning over the last couple of decades. Millard Public Schools has historically attempted to schedule bonds in five to seven year cycles. This allows the district to plan bond issuances in a way that minimizes the levy impact to the taxpayer through refinancing and paying off bonds. This is similar to where the District was in 2020 when it promised no more than a penny increase to the levy for a $125 million bond (where we actually did better, by lowering the levy in the years after the passage of the 2020 bond). To see how that has worked out, see the chart below showing Millard’s bond levy over time.
Will my taxes go down if this bond referendum does not pass? That is difficult to predict, but it is likely that they will not go down. If the bond does not pass, the district may need to consider options such as increasing its building fund levy, merely to achieve minimal emergency maintenance of its facilities. Also, over time, only doing the minimal emergency maintenance risks more costly long term district repairs and replacements when building components like roofs and HVAC systems fail.
How does the bond help decrease class size over the next several years / is it possible to use bond dollars to decrease class sizes? Bond proceeds do not directly affect class sizes. Bond dollars may only be used for capital projects (e.g. buildings and building infrastructure), not general fund expenditures. However, without a bond, the district may be required to divert some general fund dollars for emergency facility maintenance and repair along with increasing building fund levies, which could ultimately have a negative effect on class sizes and other academic programs.
While the plan for spending bond funds for the next 5 - 7 years is laid out in the bond planning information, what is the facilities plan for the next fifteen or twenty years? That plan is constantly evolving. We do annual evaluations of our facilities to help us allocate resources to our greatest needs and to project likely needs over the next five years. Our goal is to keep maintaining buildings at an annual spend of approximately two percent of their value.
How will the funds from this bond issue be used by the district? This bond issue would be used primarily to improve facility safety and security for students and staff, renovate existing schools at or over 30 years of age, enhance facility space to accommodate high need/interest academic/activity programming, and for facility/grounds maintenance, repair, and renovation. Below is a summary of some of the major projects that are included in the February 2025 bond referendum:
Safety and Security: The primary focus of this proposed bond would be ensuring that each school building has a secure entry vestibule consistent with district standards. Currently, 14 of the district’s 35 buildings have a secure entry vestibule that meet district standards. This bond would allow us to complete all of the remaining 21 buildings. In addition to the secure entry vestibule, the bond would allocate funding for other security projects such as ballistic window film, upgrades of security cameras, upgrades to interior and exterior door security, replacement of fire alarms, upgrades of building intercoms, and continued internal facility security renovations.
Renovations & Improvements: This proposed bond would permit a continuation of building renovations begun in prior bonds, directly impacting 10 of the district’s 35 school buildings as listed below:
- Abbott Elementary School (built in 1981);
- Ackerman Elementary School (built in 1982) ;
- Aldrich Elementary School (built in 1994);
- Ezra Millard Elementary School (built in 1988);
- Willowdale Elementary School (built in 1993);
- Andersen Middle School School (built in 1985);
- Kiewit Middle School (built in 1988);
- Millard West High School Phase I Renovation (built in 1995);
- Millard North High School Skilled Trades/STEM Classrooms & Multipurpose Space (built in 1978); and
- Young Adult Special Education Program facility located at the Central Middle School Annex (built in 1960).
Facility & Campus Maintenance & Repair: As with prior bonds, this proposed bond would permit the district to keep a maintenance, repair, and replacement cycle of facility components such as:
- Roofs, doors, windows, and other exterior building components;
- HVAC, electrical, lighting, elevators, and other building mechanical and control systems;
- Glazing, flooring, walls, paint, and other interior facility features; and
- Maintenance, repair, and renovation to exterior facility campus structures including parking lots and sidewalks.
How were the 2025 bond projects selected? The district engaged BCDM Architects for a study which included a safety audit and a facility needs study. Those studies helped to develop the initial list of projects. Subsequently, that initial list was paired down through staff and public input to a final list described above that the district could manage financially without any increase to its bond levy.
Please join us for a community meeting about the 2025 proposed bond:
- December 9, 2024 at 6 p.m. at Millard South High School, 14905 Q Street, in the Cafeteria
- January 6, 2025 at 6 p.m. at the Don Stroh Administration Center, 5606 South 147th Street, in the Meeting Rooms
- January 22, 2025 at 6 p.m. at Millard North High School, 1010 South 144th Street, in the Lecture Hall
- January 30, 2025 at 6 p.m. at Millard West High School, 5710 South 176th Avenue, in the Lecture Hall
- 582 acres of land
- 38 Buildings - 35 school buildings & 3 support buildings
- Average age of facilities – 40+ years
- Gross square footage of facilities – 3.3 million square feet
- Area of roofs – 3.1 million square feet
- It would cost an estimated $1 Billion to rebuild existing Millard facilities
Millard's annual financial reports, audits, budget documents and more can be found on the Business Services page: mpsomaha.org/departments/business-services
Have additional questions about the proposed bond or district's finances? Please reach out to the District’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Chad Meisgeier at cmmeisgeier@mpsomaha.org or 402-715-8401.