The Tooele and Logan school boards will ask voters Nov. 4 for permission to borrow money to build or renovate school facilities and to raise taxes.
Tooele
The Tooele School Board has asked voters to approve $45 million in bonds to build two new secondary schools in the northeastern part of the county.
The bonds also would fund additions and improvements to Grantsville High and Tooele junior and senior highs, respectively.
If passed, the owner of a $100,000 home would pay about $215 more per year in property taxes.
Voters also will consider adopting a voted leeway tax, making the district eligible for additional state funds to supplement the local tax effort. Proceeds would be used to operate and maintain schools being built.
District officials estimate the new tax would generate $1.5 million a year, costing the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $55 in annual property taxes. Superintendent Jim Buckley said the estimate may be high since it doesn't account for anticipated growth in the tax base.
Last year, voters approved $10 million in bonds to help construct a new elementary school in Wendover, 10 new classrooms at Stansbury and East elementaries and a multipurpose room at Harris Elementary. Construction is to be complete next school year.
"We feel our elementary needs have been met for the next five years. The immediate concern is our secondary schools are full and have been full," Buckley said.
Tooele County is expecting another 2,200 students within the next seven years, bringing the headcount to 10,000. Tooele High already houses 400 over capacity, he said.
"We're expecting a huge influx in the next two to three years where we have all of these homes under construction right now," he said. Many incoming families have preschool-age children.
Logan
Logan voters will be asked to approve a $22.4 million bond to replace the old "Grizzly" gymnasium at Logan High School, build a new $4 million elementary school and renovate Wilson and Woodruff elementaries and Mount Logan Middle School.
Bond proceeds also would be used to bring Logan schools up to code.
Bonds would be sold in three issues over the next five years, so taxes would be raised incrementally. District officials anticipate no tax increase for debt service for the first two sales.
The school board also is asking voters to permit an increase in the district's voted leeway tax rate. If approved, the owner of a $100,000 home would pay an extra $13.75 in annual property tax.
Revenues would be used to operate the new elementary school contemplated in the bond issue. The tax would not be levied until the school is built, likely by 2001.
Grizzly gymnasium was built as a Works Progress Administration project, said Logan business administrator Paul Jensen. The gym was built with a pool but it hasn't been used in about five years.
"It would lose about 18 inches (of water) overnight and we weren't sure where it was going. The fire marshal has pretty much restricted us from using anything but the gym," he said.
A replacement, with no pool, is estimated at $3.5 million.
There is no organized opposition to either school bond authorization, although the Utah Taxpayers Association addressed each in its recent Tax Alert publication.