By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Anyone who expected to see dirt moved or machinery waiting in the wings to build the new Bowling Green High School was likely disappointed when they arrived at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.
But Superintendent Ted Haselman urged them to take heart.
“There is much work going on behind the scenes,” he said. Meetings are being held on the district’s credit rating, plans are being made to sell bonds for the new school in the spring, and the board on Tuesday was asked to approve contracting with an architectural firm.
Three architectural firms submitted bids for designing the new school. Haselman said he and Treasurer Cathy Schuller recommended the board continue working with DLR Group, which designed the proposal presented to the public prior to the school bond issue.
“We believe they did a wonderful job,” and will continue to do so, Haselman said to the board. The board voted unanimously in support.
The firm will have to negotiate a contract with the superintendent and treasurer, to be voted on by the board.
Then the district will request bids from construction management firms for the project, Haselman said.
In other business at Tuesday’s board meeting, Schuller presented an updated five-year financial forecast for the district that looks less foreboding than the forecast initially presented last month.
Schuller explained the earlier forecast was based on estimates from the real property tax reappraisal that occurs every six years. But since then, the final assessed valuation numbers came in from the auditor’s office.
Normally, the district doesn’t update its budget forecasts again until May, but this change was significant enough to warrant an update on Tuesday, Schuller said.
With significant increases in assessed valuations and by hitting the 20-mill floor, the deficit that was showing for 2026 has lessened, Schuller said.
The increase in revenue doesn’t eliminate the need for new operating money next year, but it extends the life of the district’s cash balance.
“We’re still going to be deficit spending,” but it will extend the life of the district’s cash balance, the treasurer said.
In November, it looked as if the property tax revenue would be about $19.8 million, which would be a growth of 0.76%. Using the revised numbers, the property tax revenue will be about $20.3 million, or an increase of 1%.
On the spending end, the November projections predicted $4.4 million in deficit spending in 2024, but the December numbers showed $3.8 million in deficit spending.
Also at the meeting, parent and former school board candidate Steve Bateson suggested the board take a closer look at the district’s capital improvement plan. That plan currently calls for tax revenue from the Rover Pipeline to go into capital improvements. But Bateson suggested the money go into the district operating fund.
“You could stretch out the window before going back to the taxpayers,” he said.
That would require board action, Schuller said after the meeting. Last year, the pipeline brought in about $1.2 million – not enough to prevent deficit spending, she said.
