When North Summit School District Superintendent Jerre Holmes got up to address about 100 constituents at a meeting Wednesday evening in North Summit High School’s auditorium to publicly pitch a bond for a new high school to be built, he spoke in a way that didn’t elicit or expect excitement for the project, beneficial to his community as it may be.
Rather, he looked at the audience, whom he knew felt the growing burden of rising taxes correlated with their rising home values, and assured them that he and the school board did not easily make the decision to build the new facility, but almost reluctantly arrived at the conclusion that it’s necessary.
“I’m grateful to this board and boards in recent past who have done all in their power to not burden the taxpayers,” he said. “In the 24 years that I’ve lived here as a resident of North Summit, not once has the school board imposed a truth in taxation increase. … Unfortunately, with the dramatic increases in our home evaluations, it has appeared that the district is continually raising your taxes.”
In 2004, he said, the district built a new middle school, bus garage and new facilities at the high school and elementary school. That bond was paid off this spring, and he said the district had waited for the debt to be paid before asking the community to support another bond.
“We understand that the timing of this proposal is not great, but it never will be in terms of the tax increase,” he said. “The timing, however, is appropriate for the needs of our high school students and staff and for our community.”
He added that the proposal was not born out of a desire for something nicer, but for something safer and more efficient.
The high school was built in 1977, its swimming pool in 1966. He asked for the public’s support in voting in favor of a $114 million general obligation bond to replace them.
For every $100,000 of home value for primary residences, that would mean a $118 annual tax raise. For second homes or businesses, that number increases to $215. The bond would take about two decades to pay.
Whitney Ward from VCBO Architecture explained why the new building is necessary and why the current building might no longer be the best for the community.
“We were engaged to do a facility assessment to understand the state of the building,” she said. “And to understand what it might cost to reinvest in or help bring everything up to the current needs of the school and the district.”
She said her firm completed that assessment and found that there haven’t been any major modifications to the building since its original design and construction.
“One of the big items of note was from the structural evaluation,” she said.
The building’s roof was found to be about twice as heavy as normal, and it sits on unreinforced masonry.
“There is a risk that in a seismic event, the pressure of the seismic event sort of rattles the school, the weight of the roof could cause more damage in an earthquake because of the height/weight and the unreinforced walls,” she said.
In the auditorium and gym where the walls are even taller, she said this is a concern, too.
Other issues included electrical system vulnerabilities, boilers approaching the end of their life spans, no air conditioning and safety problems that newer school buildings eliminate. She said several of the entrances to the school are often propped open with rocks for easy access, and while newer education facilities have a multiple-door system to vet visitors before they enter the main building, the old high school does not.
She said the pool, which serves the district and the broader North Summit community, has already surpassed its expected life expectancy.
“It’s really hard to gauge how the pool is holding up because it is hidden behind that PVC liner,” she said. “But there are some things to note that some of the filtration and water management systems aren’t up to current code.”
All in all, she said reinvesting in the existing school would probably come with a higher price tag than building a new one.
The new proposed building would be located on district-owned property southwest of the Coalville Cemetery. The plot would be large enough for a school, an eight-lane track, a football field and all athletic facilities needed to support the community’s long-term growth, as the school would accommodate about 640 students.
“Five years ago we did a growth study,” Holmes said. “The experts told us we were stagnant and there was no growth, and now we are where we are. So, the task of building a new high school for the next 50 years is daunting. It’s almost like having to play God and know how many students we will have.”
He said there may come a day when another high school is necessary in Hoytsville and added that the district has gone to Larry H. Miller — a large developer in the area — looking for land.
“We were hoping that they would gift or at least be nice about our purchase of said land,” he said. “But we didn’t get any wiggle room or any warm fuzzies.”
Still, he looked to nearby Wasatch County’s quick, explosive expansion to consider the possibility of needing another school in a few decades.
Discussing the pool, Ward said the facility in the old high school would remain open — even as the connected high school around it would be demolished — until the new indoor pool could begin. Eventually, the new indoor pool would go where the current one sits.
Once the bond passes toward the end of the year, Ward said the high school can be designed. The whole process, she estimated, would take around two years.
Ward and Holmes took questions from the audience, some on paper and some over the microphone.
Toward the end of the meeting, a woman toward the front of the auditorium who later declined to identify herself to The Park Record took the mic.
“How do you propose that we’ll pay the tax bill?” she asked. “We have inflation, we have recession, we have downturn in wages. North Summit County has a high poverty level that does not contribute to the tax base. How, exactly, do you expect us to pay this?”
Holmes took a long second before he responded.
“I think that’s a great question, and as I mentioned in the beginning, the last thing that this board wants to do is burden anyone with a tax increase,” he said. “Without crossing the lines of what my limitations are legally as a superintendent, I can assure you that we have not taken this lightly and we understand the burden. Do we fully understand what each household is going through? Absolutely not, but we know a tax increase is a burden.”
Still, he added, the building is wearing out, and he wanted every high school student to have a good experience.
“I can assure you that the folks on this stage have honestly thought and agonized over your question,” he said. “What we are burdening you with is a decision. … If we say, ‘Well, we think this school can last another five years,’ that’s great. But there will come a time when the can that’s getting kicked down the road will have to be picked up.”