The St. Vrain Valley school board took another step this week toward asking voters to approve a $739.8 million capital construction bond issue.
The school board on Wednesday approved notifying its counties of its possible intent to participate in the November election. A 50-member district committee also recently unanimously approved the bond project list, while the school board will take a final vote in August on placing the measure on the ballot.
“It will really take St. Vrain to an entire new level of opportunities for our students and staff and community,” Superintendent Don Haddad said. “We’re excited about the potential.”
The $739.8 million price tag allows the district to stay under the dollar amount that would require a mill levy increase — and bump up property taxes. The district can issue bonds without raising taxes through a combination of factors that include the area’s increased property values and growth. The district also paid some of its existing bond debt early, reducing its total debt amount.
St. Vrain Valley voters last approved a capital construction bond issue in 2016, which totaled $260.3 million. Bond issue revenues can only be used for capital needs, not operating costs like salaries.
“It’s really just about the bricks and mortar,” Haddad said.
The planned projects for a new bond, which are detailed on the district’s website at svvsd.org, include five new buildings. Three would be new schools to handle the expected enrollment growth over the next 10 years in the Carbon Valley, Erie and Mead areas.
A new high school to relieve crowding in the Erie and Carbon Valley area would be built on a 73-acre property that’s north of Colo. 52 in Frederick. The land, which the district bought for $6.1 million in 2022, is at the southeast corner of Godding Hollow Parkway and Aggregate Boulevard.
Erie High is the district’s largest high school and enrolled 1,760 students last fall. Temporary mobile classrooms are providing the needed space until a new school is built. The new school also is expected to draw students from surrounding communities, including fast growing areas of Mead and Frederick.
A second Career and Technical Educational Center is slated to be built on that same property, allowing area students to attend those classes without having to travel to Longmont’s Career Elevation and Technology Center. The new center also would open seats at the Longmont location.
A new K-8 school is planned in Mead, near the new high school, to relieve crowding in the town’s schools. Mead Elementary last fall enrolled 802 students, making it the district’s largest elementary school.
Fast-growing Erie would get a new elementary school in the Collier’s Hill neighborhood. This would be Erie’s sixth elementary school. Along with the elementary schools, there’s Soaring Heights PK-8 and Aspen Ridge Preparatory, a PK-8 charter school.
The bond also would include money for a new building for St. Vrain Community Montessori, a charter school located in Longmont. The new building would be on a 10-acre school district property on Quail Road in Longmont.
The 230-student, K-8 charter school, which opened in fall 2009, is now in two rented buildings and two modular classrooms in an industrial area of south Longmont.
The district’s charter schools, including St. Vrain Community Montessori, will receive a total of $54 million.
Along with new buildings, the proposal includes money for maintenance, repairs and safety improvements at the district’s existing schools, as well as add classrooms and reconfigure outdated spaces. Included in that work is an expansion of Longmont’s Innovation Center, which offers STEM programs to students districtwide.
On the maintenance side, the district plans to replace outdated electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems and repair or replace roofs.
Safety improvements would include upgrades to doors, windows and vestibules; upgrades to cameras, intercoms and first-responder radio coverage; and upgrades to fire alarms and suppression systems.
“A lot of this is going toward preserving the quality of the buildings we have,” Haddad said.
