By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
All the candidates running for USD 489 school board said Wednesday night during a community forum they think the district needs to improve its facilities through a bond, but they had differing approaches.
The district failed to pass bond issues in 2016 and 2017. It's in the process of developing another bond issue.
"As far as the bond issue, we've had two failed in recent years," board candidate Cathy Hopkins, said. "I think it's very important to look at that failure and make sure we're not repeating the same thing over and over again."
She said she hoped the district could work toward a bond that was sound in its time frame and duration. Some critics of the 2017 bond said they would have preferred a 20-year bond versus the 30-year bond that was proposed.
Curt Vajnar, candidate, said as a former teacher, he understood the facility needs in the district.
"In another 30 years, we'll be teaching in tents because it'll be falling down," he said.
He said the school board needs to working as a team to pass a bond issue.
Candidate Tom Wasinger said he thinks there's support in Hays to pass a school bond.
"The trick is finding the right balance, total cost to do what you want to do, making sure the plan has turned over every rock," Wasinger said. "So when you go to the community, you can tell them you've done everything possible to come up with the best plan possible."
He also said he thought the last two bonds failed because they were too costly and the terms were too long.
Candidate Meagan Zampieri-Lillpopp said the district's buildings need to be bigger.
"It does come down to transparency in the process and trust to get the work done," Zampieri-Lillpopp said.
Candidate Ken Brooks said he loves Hays schools.
"I want our schools to be safe," he said. "I want them to be good facilities. That's going to mean passing a bond."
He said school improvement is not just important to the district, but the entire community.
Candidate Casey Herrman said the past bonds have been "blank checks."
"We've got to have every cent accounted for. These big bonds to build a new high school and pay big contractors and big architects money — that's not how this is going to go. We need to keep our money local."
Capital outlay
The candidates said they thought bond spending needed to be paired with continued facility repairs through the district's capital outlay plan.
Zampieri-Lillpopp said, "I think [the board] is trying to take care of some of that deferred maintenance, trying to cover the safety issues in the buildings, but I know it's not going to be enough.
"It's not going to cover all of the needs of the buildings, and we need to pass a bond as soon as we possibly can. The students deserve it. The teachers deserve to have donors not have to choose fundraisers for their furniture."
Brooks said there isn't going to be enough money in the capital outlay budget to fix all of the facility problems in the schools, and that is why the community needs to move forward on a bond.
Herrman said he had not looked at the district's five-year capital outlay plan.
Hopkins said building future maintenance into a bond plan will be important.
"I think a huge part of it all is that we don't put ourselves in a position 10 years from now that the buildings we just built aren't being taken care of," she said.
Vajnar said the district is going to need a bond issue if it is going to get ahead.
Wasinger said he did not think bond payments nor salaries should come out of capital outlay.
A previous bond proposed taking 2 mills out of capital outlay to lower the bond cost. At one point, maintenance staff wages were also coming out of the capital outlay budget, but that practice has been discontinued.
"I think on the next bond, it needs to be parallel — the capital outlay budget and the bond — to maximize efficiencies," Wasinger said.
COVID
The candidates differed widely on their thoughts on the district's COVID mitigation policy.
Vajnar said he thought USD 489 was doing a good job in handling COVID. He said he thought all decisions on COVID should be made locally.
Vajnar, who was teaching in the district in 2020, said no education occurred after children were sent home in spring 2020.
"Put a mask on before you don't let my kids be educated," he said.
Wasinger said he thought the meetings between school officials and Public Health Officer Jason Kennedy were working well.
Zampieri-Lillpopp said she thought the current COVID policy is respectful of the experts while also being conscious of the goal of keeping students in classrooms.
"We are losing education time when they're on a screen," she said.
Brooks said he thought the school district did a great job of seeking advice and putting the COVID mitigation policy together.
"I think they've done a good job of keeping our schools open," he said.
Herrman has been a vocal opponent of the use of masks in schools. He said he thought the district's COVID mitigation policy is a joke.
He said he thought the threshold for COVID mitigation measures was too low compared to other districts. He also said he thought the policy should allow mitigation efforts to be applied to individual schools instead of the whole district.
"I think it's parental choice," he said. "If you're sick, stay home."
Hopkins has also been an opponent of the masks in schools and the district's COVID policy.
"I believe in parental choice 100 percent across the board when it comes to their children's health," she said.
"Yes, education is very important or being in the classroom is very important," she said. "I don't think we can take away rights and say that's why we do it."
A forum for the candidates running for Hays City Commission was also held Wednesday night. The candidate forums were sponsored by the Fort Hays State University Student Government Association, the Docking Institute, the American Democracy Project, the FHSU Department of Political Science and the Hays Chamber.
The election is Nov. 2. Advance voting starts Monday.
The entire forum is available below, courtesy of the FHSU Tiger Media Network (TMN) YouTube channel.