While the $16.5 million price tag is intimidating at first glance, Dover Supt. Max Thomas said most of the cost of a proposed new elementary school will be borne by industry, rather than individual property owners.

The school board voted at its February meeting to call for an April 7 election for voter consideration of a 15-year series bond issue totaling $16.515 million.

Dover Public Schools is the most recent in the county seeking to take advantage of a primarily energy-fueled explosion in net assessed property valuation combined with low interest rates to finance new construction without creating a crippling property tax burden.

Hennessey is completing a major construction project, while Kingfisher and Lomega voters recently approved bond issues for new school construction in those districts.

Have To Situation

In Dover’s case, the rosy financial picture developed just in the nick of time.

While recent major sewer and electrical repairs have ensured that the building is safe for student occupancy, the aging structure continues to deteriorate, Thomas said.

Last week, a smoking electrical ballast in the basement caused students to be evacuated to the high school gym for half a day before the Dover Fire Department declared the building safe for their return.

And that was after a collapsed sewer pipe caused backup in the basement that had to be pumped out.

“It’s been one thing after another and we’re not exaggerating when we say it’s just a matter of time before this building is unusable,” Thomas said.

Unless the building is replaced before that happens, the district will be facing the more drastic alternative of annexing to a neighboring school district.

“I’ll be happy to take anyone on a tour of the building to see the problems we’re talking about,” he said.

Preliminary Plans

Cost estimates were prepared by Joe D. Hall Construction, the company that will serve as construction manager for the project.

The estimate is based on the company’s analysis of 12 recent jobs with similar design elements and square footage, Thomas said.

While the actual layout of the building is still in flux until the bond issue passes and engineering and design work is completed, the new school encompasses 35,433 square feet.

The design includes classrooms built around a central safe room that also will be open as a community tornado shelter.

The safe room space will be subdivided and current plans call for it to be utilized during the school day as a library, music room and computer lab.

A multipurpose room containing a gym will be attached to the east end of the new building.

And the entire project is designed to extend east from the north end of the new high school, across Taylor Street and onto property on the other side, which the district has under contract to purchase. The district is asking the town to vacate that section of street, much of which will be removed and the rest repaved during the construction process.

The envisioned result is a secure, unified school campus, with the two schools connected by a shared, curving vestibule and new parking areas on the north, east and south sides of the new building.

“We included 100,000 square feet of concrete paving in the cost estimate, which is more than plenty,” Thomas said.

Financial Impact

Dover school board reviewed an extensive financial study prepared by its financial advisers Stephen H. McDonald and Associates, before voting to call for the bond election.

Dover has seen the most dramatic increase in net assessed property valuations over the last five years of any county district.

Massive energy infrastructure construction within its geographic borders for wind farms, pipelines, frack sand facilities and other related improvements are largely responsible.

In the last seven years, net assessed valuations have increased from $9.3 million to nearly $76 million, which has drastically reduced the property tax burden for individual taxpayers, Thomas said.

“Right now, our sinking fund millage rate is 5.99, which is lower than any other district in the county,” he said.

As the new bond issues are added to the tax rolls in an incremental series, Dover’s sinking fund millage is projected to increase to only 7.71 – still the lowest of any county district and well below the state average of 21 mills, according to the district’s advisers.

Sinking fund projections generally assume that property valuations remain flat over the course of a bond issue payout, but Thomas said Dover’s financial advisers took an even more conservative approach.

“Their numbers are actually based on a 1 percent decrease in valuation every year the bonds are outstanding,” he said. “Even with that much caution, our millage rates are expected to stay low compared to neighboring districts.

“A very conservative estimate is that 70 percent of the cost of construction will be paid by industry,” he said.

Nonfinanced Costs

While oil and gas gross production taxes are expected to decline as production diminishes, Dover will still be able to pay for many of the construction costs out of its general revenue fund, including demolition of the existing building, purchasing the land and furniture and fixtures for the new school.

Sentimental Value

During the demolition, Thomas said the school will try to salvage anything of value from the existing building, particularly anything alumni members indicate they’d like to have.

“It would be good to know up front what people may want,” he said. Anyone who has questions about the bond issue or the proposed new building is encouraged to call Thomas for more information, he said.