It is time to vote yes for Medford school referendum

When it comes to the Medford school district’s current and future needs, it is time to stop talking and start doing.

It is time to vote in favor of a school referendum that will update and expand science and English classroom spaces, increase technical education program space, address safety and accessibility concerns, and allow the district to get ahead on district-wide maintenance needs from bathrooms to boilers.

A year ago Medford resident Dave Koester began asking questions. He asked school leaders about each building’s needs and priorities. He spent time in each building seeing how spaces function and are used and how they could be made better.

He took this information to the community sharing his findings at community forums and listening sessions. There were many who attended these sessions who were ardent supporters of past referendum attempts. There were also a sizable number who were more skeptical and had a critical eye in regard to what was needed and what would be simply nice to have.

Last spring, Koester brought the results of the community efforts to the school board presenting his findings and identifying needs from replacing rusting metal door frames at the Middle School to addressing the lack of space at the high school to prepare students in the technical education department for in-demand jobs.

School board members sought additional community feedback narrowing the list of potential projects and eliminating anything that could be perceived as an extra. They then sent a survey out to the community asking for feedback and for residents to rank the proposed areas.

Board members took the results of that survey and further cut projects that they felt did not have as much support and were not critical at this time. They also looked at financing costs and ways to get residents the biggest bang for their buck when it came to maximizing state aids.

Only then did the school board commit to asking voters to approve a referendum for $22,665,000. Board members approved sending it to voters knowing that local taxpayers would only be responsible for $6.57 million of that amount under the state funding levels which cover 71% of the costs at the state level.

The cost of the project to taxpayers is projected to be $47 on a $100,000 home with it to go down in future years. Even this amount estimated is conservatively high given that the interest rate projections from Baird were already a full percentage point higher than actual market rates even before the Federal Reserve dropped rates in September. With talk of another interest rate drop in November, the actual amount would be even lower.

It is time to make the investment in the Medford schools to have buildings the community can be proud of for decades to come.