The Gwinn High School’s sign is shown. Voters passed a sinking fund millage for the school district in Tuesday’s election. (Journal file photo)

GWINN — With facilities in Gwinn Area Community Schools still needing maintenance, the district again is requesting voters pass a sinking fund millage to pay for that maintenance.

The GACS Board of Education at its Monday meeting voted to request a sinking fund millage of 1.5 mills for four years at the March 10 general election.

A resolution of ballot language will be held at the next board meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Nov. 25 at Gilbert Elementary School. Also that evening, the annual audit report will be given at 6 p.m.

The school district’s request for a sinking fund millage was defeated in the Aug. 6 election, with the board subsequently deciding against placing the issue on the Nov. 5 ballot.

A request in the May 7 election also failed.

The school district in its first two attempts sought a levy not to exceed 1.75 mills, which is $1.75 on each $1,000 of taxable property value, for 10 years — 2019 to 2028. The sinking fund would have gone for items such as the repair of school buildings and school security improvements.

“The board is listening to the community about perhaps the amount and the length of the millage,” GACS Superintendent Sandy Petrovich said. “However, the needs of the district certainly are still there with a lot of deferred maintenance and replacement/repair projects, and so the need to still have a sinking fund is definitely there.”

She said the board wanted to show the community there still was a need, but also wanted to be respectful of the “voices in the community” that weren’t supporting the 1.75-mill levy.

Petrovich acknowledged a “trust issue” with the district has a connection with the length of the new millage request.

“There have been conversations about the community trusting the district,” she said, “and as the district works on building the trust of the community, looking at a four-year length for the sinking fund to show the community that we are good stewards of your money — we are good stewards of the gift that you give the district by helping us establish a sinking fund — then we have a plan to have a monthly sinking fund report out at each board meeting so that we are very transparent in what projects are being accomplished, what the funds are being spent on, and if something did need to change from the intention for that year’s projects, that we communicate the reason why, because sometimes emergencies happen and things need to be reconfigured.”

Petrovich believes the “communication piece” to the community on what is being spent with sinking fund dollars and updating the report regularly will be important in rebuilding that trust and being transparent.

Petrovich said that although the school district has been paring down its deficit, it still has financial challenges.

One of those challenges springs from the state budget signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Sept. 30.

The budget gave public schools an increase in the foundation allowance of $240 per student, which Petrovich said is more than the $180 the Gwinn school district had in its budget.

“So, we’re getting $60 more per student than what we budgeted,” Petrovich said.

However, she noted the veto of the 22d money, which provides additional funds for rural transportation to districts, will bring down that amount.

According to the Michigan Association of School Boards, 22d money includes districts with 7.7 or fewer pupils per square mile.

The governor’s line-item vetoes on funding items, Petrovich said, essentially reduces the district’s increase back to what it originally budgeted. That means GACS will lose about $54,000 on that veto.

State Rep. Sara Cambensy, D-Marquette, earlier this month introduced House Bill 5093 to protect vulnerable schools in the Upper Peninsula and secure $7 million in funding for small, isolated school districts throughout the state.

The bill would include funding meant to address transportation challenges faced by districts spread over a large geographic area.

However that bill plays out, GACS still needs the sinking fund, Petrovich said.

“The sinking fund still is so critical to us because even though our budgeting is matching what our income is through the revenue, and we’re savvy with that, there is still no excess to fix all the deferred maintenance projects,” Petrovich said.

She noted the district has established a “first-year projects list” that includes dealing with plumbing at Gilbert and K.I. Sawyer elementary schools, making sure there’s running hot and cold water as well as drinking water without an elevated lead content in those classrooms, and that air-handling systems are providing clean, fresh air.

“We’re talking about meeting those basic needs,” Petrovich said.

To not have a sinking fund, she stressed, would mean the district instead would have to pay for those urgent projects out of the general fund.

“So we either don’t fix those projects and our students don’t have access to things they need to be healthy, safe and secure,” she said, “or we take care of those projects and go back into deficit.”

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.