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Lansing School District residents will vote on a $6,450,000 capital project Tuesday, December 9th.  School Business Administrator Mary June King the SMART (Security, Mechanical, Architectural, Reconstruction, Technology) project will include work in almost all school campus buildings, and will not cost taxpayers any additional taxes.

"People have a hard struggle getting their mind around how it can not cost us anything additional," said King in a Board Of Education meeting last week.  "It's not costing us nothing.  It's costing us something.  It's just not costing us more dollars than we're currently spending."

That can happen because $1 million of debt is falling off in 2016-17.  That means that debt for previous capital projects will be paid in full at that time.  $350,000 of that is the 'local share', the part taxpayers contribute to.  Rather than reducing taxes, the district plans to maintain that dollar amount, taking new debt to replace it.  

That insures that buildings are maintained, repaired and kept safe for students, but it also means that some new projects do not add additional taxes.  In this case about $140,000 of the debt rollover will be used to fund the $4.1 million septic system replacement project, and the remaining $210,000 will pay for the SMART project.  The rest of the expenditures are paid for in state aid.

To put it simply, 40% of taxpayer responsibility for the debt will pay for the septic project and the remaining 60% will pay for the SMART project.  Because of state aid and regulations the district gets $10.5 million worth of capital improvements for $350,000 of property tax dollars.

If passed by voters on December 9th the high school will get boilers and boiler room piping replacement, new gym air handling units, the elevator will be replaced, a UV disinfection system will be installed in the pool, filter and plumbing upgrades, 3 music practice rooms), a sports boosters concession stand, and a second floor teacher work and copier space.


"The sports booster club has donated a lot of money to the district over the years," King said.  "They've bought us a lot of equipment.  And they continue to be very generous with the district.  A concessions stand is something that will improve our facility."


In the middle school the auditorium lobby will get new ADA bathrooms, and replacement doors will be installed around the auditorium.  An ADA-accessible addition to front of building will be added, with a reconfigure main office entrance for security.  Basement drainage, ventilation (exhaust) in all crawl spaces, library climate improvements (fans, window treatments), replace electrical switchboard and panel boards, and a walk-in freezer will be part of the project.  A generator will be tied into the school to access excess capacity, and a new boiler, piping, controls, and water heater will be installed in the technology building.

The elementary school will get translucent/security film on café windows, new locks on café doors, additional set of doors in entrance hall, access controls at front doors, ventilation in crawl spaces, drainage improvements at upper playground, time/motion site lighting and a crowd-control fence and entry at Sobus field.

All the instructional buildings will also get upgrades to phones, clocks, PA systems, fire systems, emergency lighting and notification appliances.

Finally the grounds building will receive upgrades to fire systems to bring them up to code specifications, and illuminated exit signs and emergency lighting to bring to code.  The transportation building's roll-up doors will be replaced in the work bays and exposed ceiling insulation will be replaced with non-combustible materials.

If the voters approve the project, school officials estimate it will take six months to design before bids go out in January of 2016.  Bids will be awarded in late February with an eye to completing construction in the summer of 2016.

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