On May 2, the decision on Saginaw Township’s $242.9 million school bond proposal will combine the current era with a growing history. The Board of Education aims to replace 51-year-old Heritage High and upgrade the district’s seven other schools of similar or older age.
Residents have a final chance to learn more, and/or speak their piece, during a 6 p.m. forum Thursday at Mackinaw High School.
Some things never change. Voters will ask, is the work needed and can we afford it?
Some things change, like inflation. Ten dollars today is the same as one dollar in 1961, the year MacArthur High opened.
Other things change, like society. Shootings by school invaders were not considered with courtyards at MacArthur, now White Pine Middle, or in 1971 when the circular Eisenhower, now Heritage High, was built with 118 doorways and maze-like sightlines. The plus-100 entry points are providing an overall campaign sound bite for provisions to tighten access at all the buildings.
Plans also address the standard concerns that range from old roofs on down to cracked floors, and everything in between. Sums are $113.4 million for Heritage, followed by $41.5M for White Pine. Among the five elementary schools, Sherwood would be in line for $24.3M, Arrowwood $17.6. Weiss $13.7, Westdale $12.5 and Hemmeter $11.9. Mackinaw High would reap $7.7 million.
Opponents are organized to the point of displaying yard signs, but they have not collectively protested at public forums. At the school board meeting on April 24, no citizen spoke, neither in favor nor opposed.
Down the stretch, a mailing from the Vote No group is challenged on Facebook by board President Arik Smith as containing “misleading statements, inaccuracies and some flat out lies.”
At the same time, district handouts describe “the average homeowner (living in a $100,000 home)” which is barely half of the township’s $180,000 median and which pegs a yearly proposal cost about $200 lower than the general norm in the range of $500 would be.
Property owners are asked to pay $2.87 for each $1,000 of sale value, which is double the SEV taxable assessment. Bottom line, school infrastructure property levies would rise between double and triple. Supporters say this is the result of “putting off” some major work through the years, along with the need to meet more recent security concerns.
Beyond those pocketbook basics, diligent voters will look at factors that include:
- Protection from tragedy during an era of increased school shootings, most often by outsiders who gain entry. Today, “safety and security” is listed even ahead of curriculum and tech and athletics.
- The ever-present question of accepting pupils from neighboring districts.
- Ballot language that some may find confusing or misleading.
How much is $242.9 million?
After World War II, Saginaw Township was mostly rural with scattered one-room schoolhouses, supported with smaller property taxes in the 2-mill range. Three main schools — McMann, Brick and White — were combined in 1953 to form the K-8 McBrite School on Wienecke Road.
Saginaw Township’s history of major millages goes back to construction of MacArthur High to open in 1961, along with three other schools, and then for Eisenhower High and Ottawa Middle in 1971.
Growth was so rapid — rounded off, 6,000 residents in 1950, 16,000 in 1960, 27,000 in 1970, peaking beyond 40,000 in 1980 — that at one point four high schools were projected. Eisenhower joined MacArthur, and soon afterward the population boom began to slow down. Consolidation resulted in Eisenhower and Ottawa becoming Heritage High, with MacArthur converted to White Pine Middle.
Based on usinflationcalculator.com, the $242.9 million on the May 2 ballot is the equivalent, rounded off, to $24 million for mainly MacArthur more than six decades ago, or $33 million for mainly Eisenhower a half-century in the past. A $500 annual payment in 2023, adjusted to inflation, is equivalent to $50 for the MacArthur millage or about $65 for the Eisenhower project.
To determine one’s own exact cost, divide taxable value on your statement (SEV is half the sales value) by 1,000, then multiply by 5.75.
Some lower-or fixed-income homeowners, especially senior citizens or those with disabilities, may qualify for state Homestead rebates to offset a portion of any increase. To see if you may qualify, click here.
Under changes in state law from three decades ago, known at the time as Proposal A, local school systems only may conduct elections for buildings and technology, no longer for more teachers or more programming.
A 6-cent state sales tax, up from the prior 4 cents, is intended to ease the burden on property taxes. Saginaw Township also benefits from a top-level commercial tax base, mainly from the State Street and Bay Road corridors, or else the cost per homeowner would be even higher.
Price tag for safety?
In other school districts, bond debt millages are tied to aging facilities. Stories are told of pails catching roof leaks, bricks crumbling and falling, and so forth.
Saginaw Township is similar, but different. Age indeed has started to arrive, but another concern is the circular layout geometry of Heritage High, which originally was Eisenhower. This is where the push for security is especially strong.
School leaders back in the day were conservative enough to name their high schools for military generals, but at the same time they adopted the era’s liberal concepts for “open air” classrooms and “team teaching,” basically leading to round buildings rather than square, with few interior walls.
Saginaw News caption writers for the aerial construction photos had a field day with spaceship analogies.
One caption began, “They’re Schools, not Saucers,” followed by: “Have the Martians landed in Saginaw Township?” No, these are “terrestrial surroundings, expected to accommodate earthling students.”
During that same time, mass shootings at schools were not a part of everyday thought, and so the 118 ways in and out of the new Eisenhower were not considered, or even counted, at the time.
At the first April public hearing one skeptic said the unanimous school board is “fear mongering” and another asked why barricades could not be placed at the entrances/exits, rather than building a new two-story rectangle that would rise closer to North Center roadway.
The gym, pool, and cafeteria would remain, now in the rear.
Following is Superintendent Bruce Martin’s explanation:
“Regarding the circular pods, much of it comes down to security, such as not being able to see around the curved hallways, and the 118 exterior doors. It also relates to putting up temporary, then permanent walls — not an efficient means of soundproofing and insulating classrooms for noise reduction and climate control. Additionally, we have a number of classrooms with odd shapes, including long, narrow classrooms with curved walls. These are not conducive to joining with other classrooms for large-group projects and activities, nor do they assist the teacher with classroom management in a long-narrow arrangement.”
Regardless of the millage outcome, other security issues will be coming to the board, such as metal detectors.
Race factors in some votes?
Another forum question was, “What about those city kids who keep coming to our schools from homes that don’t have to pay our millage?”
Of Saginaw Township’s 4,600 pupils, 875 are from elsewhere within the county ISD, including 700 from the City of Saginaw district, which is 80 percent non-white.
Tensions in this regard are less than the most recent bond issue, a 2008 renewal, when some foes referred to incoming pupils as “aliens.” Still, some residents such as the forum speaker may vote “no” on account of the race factor.
That was 15 years ago. The township’s percentage of non-white students has nearly doubled since then, reaching 40 percent, mostly from within the district rather than via school choice. The adult population also has become more integrated, but at a far slower pace.
School choice across boundary lines, like finance reform, is rooted in the 1990s. Before then, the only option other than a neighborhood district school was parochial.
Saginaw Township originally accepted incoming pupils at all grade levels until 2007, when community pressure led to an overall block at White Pine and Heritage. Since then, the township has accepted outside enrollees only for the elementary schools. The outlook is to bring in state aid of $9,150 per pupil right away in early grades, and if the family sticks with it, the budget gain by graduation time will approach $100,000.
At older ages, meanwhile, ethnic friction among some youngsters may become more likely. Memories still linger of a Heritage High outbreak near the millennium that led to counseling from the then-active Bridge Center for Racial Harmony, which conducted a seminar that packed Vasher Auditorium.
Current school leaders point out that open enrollment is a two-way street. Saginaw Township this year is losing an equivalent 932 pupils across borders, nearly half to western neighbor Swan Valley and its far lower level of school integration.
In a note of reversed roles, until 1959 Saginaw Township sent high schoolers to Arthur Hill High, when crowding caused the city school board to demand annexation or else borders would be closed. Township residents at the time voted more than 2-to-1 against annexing, choosing instead to build MacArthur.
Regarding fair taxation for families of Saginaw “city kids,” all households statewide now pay a base 6 mills that is redistributed to all local districts for operations, as well as portions of income and sales taxes, along with the long-held myth of huge state lottery sums. For buildings and grounds, Saginaw families are paying 6.78 mills for improvements that feature the new Saginaw United High along the riverfront across from downtown, along with 7 mills for past debt, with payments direct by homeowners and via rents for tenants. This is true regardless of whether they send their children to the township, to another district, or to a charter or parochial school. School debt millage in the older city, where demolition of 113-year-old South Intermediate is on the agenda, will remain higher even if the township millage is approved.
‘Extras’ or necessities?
Foes specifically have questioned $1.5 million for parking lots, $1.25 million for new baseball and softball fields, $1 million for an artificial surface at the football field and $600,000 for a new press box.
From the athletic department, the response is that the baseball team now plays across the street at Olson Park, while the softball girls are relegated to renting the Nouvel Catholic diamond. The football surface would not be old-fashioned Astroturf, rather the injury-preventive and low-maintenance natural surface simulator often seen in pro and college games.
Comprehensive reviews of all plans, along with an outline of the latest 1-mill sinking fund in 2018, are available on the district’s website.
Ballot wording conflicts?
When voting for a candidate, we simply mark a name. We don’t see a Trump or Biden bio, for example. But ballot proposals often include legalese that is similar to television ads where a narrator closes rapid-fire.
The four-paragraph STSC language begins with an “estimated millage” of 5.75, but later there is an isolated sentence that says, “The estimated duration of the millage levy associated with that borrowing is 36 years and the estimated computed millage rate for such levy is 7.89 mills.”
Opponents have pounced. So which is it?
When this point has been raised at the community forums, the response has been that school leaders are frustrated as well. They say they cannot control state mandates for ballot language, no matter how misleading they perceive the wording.
At the April 24 regular school board meeting, concern over confusion led Superintendent Martin to update trustees themselves. He reviewed a statement from Kari Blanchett, from Ann Arbor’s PFM Financial, and endorsed by Chistopher Iamarino from East Lansing’s Thrun Law Firm:
“The bond proposition is a 4.99 mill increase over the existing debt millage rate of 2.90 mills, for a total debt millage of 7.89 mills. In the first year of the levy, we estimate the portion of the total 7.89 debt mills that will be levied for the proposed bonds will be 5.75 mills. Each year the total debt millage levied must re-evaluated, as the School District is not allowed to levy more debt millage than needed to repay the debt. When the existing debt is paid off, the debt millage allocated to the 2023 bond proposition is expected to increase above 5.75 mills. However, the total debt millage should not exceed the 7.89 mills. Using reasonably conservative assumptions, we anticipate the total debt millage will begin to be reduced below 7.89 mills and will decline annually thereafter until the debt is paid off.”
In layman’s terms, the bond market is not precisely predictable.
Official ballot language
Following is the proposal that Saginaw Township voters will see at the polls:
“The following is for informational purposes only:
“The estimated millage that will be levied for the proposed bonds in 2023, under current law, is 5.75 mills ($5.75 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation). The maximum number of years the bonds of any series may be outstanding, exclusive of any refunding, is thirty (30) years.
“The estimated simple average annual millage anticipated to be required to retire this bond debt is 7.55 mills ($7.55 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation). The school district expects to borrow from the State School Bond Qualification and Loan Program to pay debt service on these bonds. The estimated total principal amount of that borrowing is $39,162,290 and the estimated total interest to be paid thereon is $71,521,400. The estimated duration of the millage levy associated with that borrowing is 36 years and the estimated computed millage rate for such levy is 7.89 mills. The estimated computed millage rate may change based on changes in certain circumstances. The total amount of qualified bonds currently outstanding is $15,410,000.
“The total amount of qualified loans currently outstanding is $-0-. (Pursuant to State law, expenditure of bond proceeds must be audited and the proceeds cannot be used for repair or maintenance costs, teacher, administrator or employee salaries, or other operating expenses.)”
Thank you to the Castle Museum of Saginaw County History for research assistance, also to Larry Toft for guidance with his book, “Remembering Our Past: Historic Saginaw Township.”
