Submitted by Dr. Ethan Sickels, Rock Port R-II Schools Superintendent

We have settled into the new school year, and amazingly enough our first quarter of school ends this Friday. The years continue to fly (at least to those of us who are “old”), and our students continue to produce great results both in the classroom, and in our activities and athletics as well.

My topic for this month is the no-tax increase bond issue that our school district is planning to run April 4, 2023. We are early in the process, but things will be moving quickly, and I will certainly keep you updated with information and financial considerations as we progress through the school year. At this point, we have selected our Energy Services Company for our efforts at a Guaranteed Energy Savings Contract project. Veregy is a company that has done work in over 176 Missouri school districts, including the TAC over in Tarkio. We had five proposals and presentations from companies in late August, and while we wouldn’t have gone wrong with any selection, Veregy stood out for their expertise in school related projects, especially in our local area.

Our “wish list” at this time includes the demolition of the dome structure and replacing it with a more energy efficient building housing similar classroom areas, a library that will serve both the elementary and junior high/high school, two new locker rooms and concession stand area, and hopefully much more storage than we currently possess. In addition, we want to overhaul some areas in the elementary including flooring, lighting, windows, and HVAC. We are early in the stages of planning and cost considerations, so this list will have some changes and possibly other avenues to explore.

In the next month or so, we should be able to solidify what our bonding capacity will be, which currently sits at approximately $6.3 million without a change to our tax levy. Additionally, we will try to utilize some federal grant monies that allow for maximizing our energy savings with those dollars. Plenty more information will be forthcoming, but I wanted to give you a heads-up on our efforts to improve our educational facilities for the future.

As always, I leave you with three important words . . .

GO BIG BLUE!