Polls are open at the library from 7am to 8pm. Our kids THANK YOU!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday, November 8, 2010
MARK YOUR CALENDARS - WORK SESSIONS COMING
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The Montezuma School Board will hold 3 work sessions to review and revise the current facility plan. ALL SCHOOL STAFF AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND THESE WORK SESSIONS.
The work sessions will be at 6:30 pm in the High School study hall or one of the gyms, if the crowd is too large for the study hall. Specific Agendas:
Monday November 15 – initial revisions and changes to the current plan will be discussed and explored
Monday November 29 – a new revised plan will be shared and reviewed(based on the ideas and changes from the November 15 meeting)
Monday December 13 - a final draft of a new revised plan will be shared and reviewed
Staff & community member input will be critical to the board’s decision on how to proceed with building plans. The work sessions are not stand alone meetings. Each meeting will build upon the previous meeting. The board’s goal is to develop a new plan that can be supported by the community if another bond election is held. The board will probably make a decision on whether to have another bond election at its regular January or February meeting. These work sessions are not regular board meetings and the board cannot make any formal decisions at them. At the regular December 15 school board meeting the new revised plan will be on the agenda for approval by the Board.
Hope to see you there.
The work sessions will be at 6:30 pm in the High School study hall or one of the gyms, if the crowd is too large for the study hall. Specific Agendas:
Monday November 15 – initial revisions and changes to the current plan will be discussed and explored
Monday November 29 – a new revised plan will be shared and reviewed(based on the ideas and changes from the November 15 meeting)
Monday December 13 - a final draft of a new revised plan will be shared and reviewed
Staff & community member input will be critical to the board’s decision on how to proceed with building plans. The work sessions are not stand alone meetings. Each meeting will build upon the previous meeting. The board’s goal is to develop a new plan that can be supported by the community if another bond election is held. The board will probably make a decision on whether to have another bond election at its regular January or February meeting. These work sessions are not regular board meetings and the board cannot make any formal decisions at them. At the regular December 15 school board meeting the new revised plan will be on the agenda for approval by the Board.
Hope to see you there.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
80'S DAY AT SCHOOL - YES DAY AT THE POLLS
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Final Hours Before the Vote
Before making your decision, please take the time to think about these things:
1. If the bond issue fails to pass and we lose our school, our property taxes WILL go up. Every school district around us has a higher rate than we do. Even if the bond passes, we will still be right where our neighboring districts are at. Right now, we have the second lowest rate in the state. Even if the bond passes, we will still be in the lowest 50% of the state.
2. In addition to paying a higher tax anyway, we will:
a. Lose the 100% representation we have on the school board at present (we will just get one or two people on the board from our district).
b. Local property values will more than likely decrease.
c. Our local businesses will likely not survive. Do we really want to lose our local grocery store, restaurants, retail shops, entertainment choices, etc.?
d. Our children will be bussed to another town to go to school. Or our children will be driving 30+ miles/day to and from school. Do we really want our young drivers and students on the road that often for such long distances?
e. We will be traveling out of town for home games.
f. We will lose our strong Montezuma community and sense of solidarity.
Please do the math and get the facts before voting. Our kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, etc. deserve it. Someone paid to educate us, let’s all pay it forward.
Don’t forget to vote YES for BOTH initiatives! Polls are open from 7am to 8pm at the Montezuma Library. Call 641-891-8761 if you need a ride to the polls.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
OPINION: Jim Smothers, Sr. Encourages Voters to Do What is Right for Our Children
Do what is right for our children
Sept. 7, 2010
An Open Letter to the voters of the Montezuma Community School District:
I am encouraging the people of Montezuma to vote 'Yes' for the school bond issue for the following reasons:
First, everyone who has received a public education has received it because a previous generation of people financially provided it. I believe that we have a responsibility to make the proposed improvements for the future of the children of Montezuma.
Second, some will say that enrollment is declining, and we will have to consolidate with another school district. Enrollment ebbs and flows and enrollments have basically stayed the same for the past 52 years. In fact, my graduating class had the enrollment of 41 in 1957. Students do move away and come back to raise their children in the Montezuma Community School that is not latent with drugs, gangs or saturated with sex among the students.
Third, some would say that the the eleven million (dollars) is excessive. Agreed, it is a lot of money. Please consider going to the Montezuma Schools Web Page (www.montezuma.k12.ia.us) and do the property tax calculations; you would be surprised that the cost per hundred thousand is much less than the figures that have been floating around the community. Also, consider what it will cost in taxes if we go to another community for education. Those schools that we consolidate with will no doubt have to be improved to handle the influx of students.
I realize that people don't like to pay taxes, and many are trying to reduce household expenses, but sometimes you have to do what is right for the children of this community and make the investment for their educational future.
Again, I am encouraging you to vote 'Yes' for the school bond issue on Sept. 14, 2010.
James L. Smothers, Senior
1824 470th Avenue
Montezuma, Iowa
Sept. 7, 2010
An Open Letter to the voters of the Montezuma Community School District:
I am encouraging the people of Montezuma to vote 'Yes' for the school bond issue for the following reasons:
First, everyone who has received a public education has received it because a previous generation of people financially provided it. I believe that we have a responsibility to make the proposed improvements for the future of the children of Montezuma.
Second, some will say that enrollment is declining, and we will have to consolidate with another school district. Enrollment ebbs and flows and enrollments have basically stayed the same for the past 52 years. In fact, my graduating class had the enrollment of 41 in 1957. Students do move away and come back to raise their children in the Montezuma Community School that is not latent with drugs, gangs or saturated with sex among the students.
Third, some would say that the the eleven million (dollars) is excessive. Agreed, it is a lot of money. Please consider going to the Montezuma Schools Web Page (www.montezuma.k12.ia.us) and do the property tax calculations; you would be surprised that the cost per hundred thousand is much less than the figures that have been floating around the community. Also, consider what it will cost in taxes if we go to another community for education. Those schools that we consolidate with will no doubt have to be improved to handle the influx of students.
I realize that people don't like to pay taxes, and many are trying to reduce household expenses, but sometimes you have to do what is right for the children of this community and make the investment for their educational future.
Again, I am encouraging you to vote 'Yes' for the school bond issue on Sept. 14, 2010.
James L. Smothers, Senior
1824 470th Avenue
Montezuma, Iowa
LEW LUNDY SAID: U CAN TELL A LOT ABOUT A COMMUNITY BY ITS SCHOOL
This opinion article was written by Keith Brake, http://www.clownsiniowa.com/
Brake in the Action
by Keith Brake
Look at our schools and see . . . US!
To stay on the highway, we need a roadbed
Sept. 2, 2010
How do you paint a face on the future?
What will our Montezuma schools look like in 30 years?
Would you run out and take a picture of blue sky? You might as well, because you can't photograph students working with technology that hasn't even been invented yet.
It's pretty difficult to put your arms around a concept. People who sell any kind of a service know how difficult that can be.
With a thing, it's a little different.
If the thing is a vehicle, for example, you can sit in the driver's seat, enjoy the fresh smell of the upholstery, kick the tires.
You know what good service is. But can you take a real, tangible picture of it?
No. But you can imagine it.
We learn by turning all input to our brain - words, concepts, etc., - into pictures. Until the picture appears in our mind's eye, no learning takes place. Concepts remain abstract and formless.
I have been wrestling mentally with how the Montezuma school bond issue has been presented. So have some others. Some have said it has been presented as a maintenance issue - that we're needing to pass an $11.5 million bond issue in order to fix some broken clocks and unify the color of floor tiles.
That's not true, of course. There is and has been money available to repair those things. It happens that those particular items haven't been repaired yet for one reason or another and now, they're convenient for illustrative purposes.
They are symbols of a much larger issue.
An ever-changing information superhighway is being built across the globe. Unless we want it to bypass our children and theirs, we need to lay down a roadbed that's strong enough to support it.
That's part of what this is about. That is what it has always been about in American public education.
The late Lew Lundy, who was a teacher, coach and superintendent here for many years, told me once that you can tell a lot about the pride of a community by the quality of its public school facilities.
If you're going to use more appliances and devices that need electricity, you need to make sure you've got enough wiring capacity to handle all the juice.
You might have to do some re-wiring.
Or, let's say you have a young family and you buy a small starter home with no garage.
Your family grows. You add vehicles.
There might not be anything wrong with your starter home - but maybe it's time to make it someone else's starter home.
So, you upgrade.
Now, let's say you're the school district, and you run new wiring in behind the walls, and to do that you need to knock out the walls . . .and if you do that you might expose asbestos . . and if you do that, you need to get rid of it . . .and so it goes.
If you've got a "crooked" hallway, like we do in the 1928 junior high, you can leave it that way. But if you change it, by remodeling classrooms, for example, state mandates say you must straighten the hallway and have exits at either end of it.
One thing adds to another . . . and it adds up.
People say they can't get their arms around the idea of $11.5 million.
Neither can I, for that matter . . but maybe this is why . . . Montezuma passed bond issues in the late 20s, the late 50s and the late 80s. The first time, it cost $115,000. The second time, $585,000. The last time: $1.5 million.
Things get more expensive. Water that has gradually gotten warmer since last we voted looks like a boiling caldron at $11.5 million. Our reluctance to jump in is understandable.
The project could be done in segments - perhaps one part every five years. If the Sept. 14 issue fails, that is probably what this and future boards will attempt to do. It will be increasingly expensive each time and it may get irksome to the voters.
We might just say 'forget it' and go to assisted living, which in this case would be a merger, forced or otherwise, with a neighboring district.
Assisted living often is nice. It has a cost.
We'll still be paying taxes. All of the districts around us have higher tax rates at present. They're all consolidated districts.
We still have that big blue "M" label on all our stuff and it has meant something to us. I can't take a tangible photo of that "something," but I just sense it has been there. Control. We're still in control . . of us.
History is on our side.
We really don't know what the state is going to do. It would seem that districts which have already consolidated would be targets for more of the same.
An independent old cuss usually is given some space. They stay in their homes longer in the first place.
There is no guarantee that an updated, well-equipped building will keep our school under our full control for a certain number of years.
But it will buy some time.
It will put some bounce back in our step, some arch in our backs and some bow in our necks!
And that's the other element this bond issue is about. It's about being able to rise up as a community and throw a celebratory fist in the air . . .and not worry about whether the person sitting next to us is doing the same.
There is an element in our community that is trying to make it grow. Bigger will be better in the Iowa of the future. Getting this done would make a statement. It would be a huge step.
We won't sink like so many blue and white rocks if we don't pass this or future school bond votes. And there will be others - coming right up, in smaller portions, if the Sept. 14 issue fails. Or, should history repeat, in about 30 years, if it passes this time.
Every failure would reduce our forward speed. It would be like a cancer. Our lights as a community would dim . . .slowly.
I think that Montezuma is a community that has lost some confidence in itself, over time. Maybe our real colors are faded blue and white, rather than royal blue and white.
Our confidence is not all gone. But do you hear yourself or others saying, "they can't do that," or "we aren't good enough/big enough/qualified enough for that," or "we're probably going to lose the school anyway"?
When you're constantly cutting down others, it's a symptom that you don't like or value yourself, either.
It wasn't just the school board that hired Dave Versteeg to be the superintendent. It was a committee, representing a cross-section or at least a sampling of the community, that made the recommendation.
They brought in a gentleman who is relentlessly, obsessively optimistic about building our school and the community. He is systematic. He can measure and quantify and explain things that are abstractions or formless to many of us. He has vision.
He has developed professional relationships with experts who know how to get things done.
We need to control what we can control, which means we had better continue down the path we put ourselves on.
There is still time to do that.
Money is a replenishable commodity. If you focus on ways to make it - or lose it - you likely will . . .
Lost confidence is more precious. Drive through any number of Iowa towns and you know the end of their vibrancy is gaining on them.
I have been discouraged at how little effort many in the community have made to learn about what is going on with this issue.
There is still time to learn.
Every voter owes it to themselves to make an informed decision. Not voting is not a choice. It's a no-choice.
We have that precious right to choose, so let us exercise it.
Brake in the Action
by Keith Brake
To stay on the highway, we need a roadbed
Sept. 2, 2010
How do you paint a face on the future?
What will our Montezuma schools look like in 30 years?
Would you run out and take a picture of blue sky? You might as well, because you can't photograph students working with technology that hasn't even been invented yet.
It's pretty difficult to put your arms around a concept. People who sell any kind of a service know how difficult that can be.
With a thing, it's a little different.
If the thing is a vehicle, for example, you can sit in the driver's seat, enjoy the fresh smell of the upholstery, kick the tires.
You know what good service is. But can you take a real, tangible picture of it?
No. But you can imagine it.
We learn by turning all input to our brain - words, concepts, etc., - into pictures. Until the picture appears in our mind's eye, no learning takes place. Concepts remain abstract and formless.
I have been wrestling mentally with how the Montezuma school bond issue has been presented. So have some others. Some have said it has been presented as a maintenance issue - that we're needing to pass an $11.5 million bond issue in order to fix some broken clocks and unify the color of floor tiles.
That's not true, of course. There is and has been money available to repair those things. It happens that those particular items haven't been repaired yet for one reason or another and now, they're convenient for illustrative purposes.
They are symbols of a much larger issue.
An ever-changing information superhighway is being built across the globe. Unless we want it to bypass our children and theirs, we need to lay down a roadbed that's strong enough to support it.
That's part of what this is about. That is what it has always been about in American public education.
The late Lew Lundy, who was a teacher, coach and superintendent here for many years, told me once that you can tell a lot about the pride of a community by the quality of its public school facilities.
If you're going to use more appliances and devices that need electricity, you need to make sure you've got enough wiring capacity to handle all the juice.
You might have to do some re-wiring.
Or, let's say you have a young family and you buy a small starter home with no garage.
Your family grows. You add vehicles.
There might not be anything wrong with your starter home - but maybe it's time to make it someone else's starter home.
So, you upgrade.
Now, let's say you're the school district, and you run new wiring in behind the walls, and to do that you need to knock out the walls . . .and if you do that you might expose asbestos . . and if you do that, you need to get rid of it . . .and so it goes.
If you've got a "crooked" hallway, like we do in the 1928 junior high, you can leave it that way. But if you change it, by remodeling classrooms, for example, state mandates say you must straighten the hallway and have exits at either end of it.
One thing adds to another . . . and it adds up.
People say they can't get their arms around the idea of $11.5 million.
Neither can I, for that matter . . but maybe this is why . . . Montezuma passed bond issues in the late 20s, the late 50s and the late 80s. The first time, it cost $115,000. The second time, $585,000. The last time: $1.5 million.
Things get more expensive. Water that has gradually gotten warmer since last we voted looks like a boiling caldron at $11.5 million. Our reluctance to jump in is understandable.
The project could be done in segments - perhaps one part every five years. If the Sept. 14 issue fails, that is probably what this and future boards will attempt to do. It will be increasingly expensive each time and it may get irksome to the voters.
We might just say 'forget it' and go to assisted living, which in this case would be a merger, forced or otherwise, with a neighboring district.
Assisted living often is nice. It has a cost.
We'll still be paying taxes. All of the districts around us have higher tax rates at present. They're all consolidated districts.
We still have that big blue "M" label on all our stuff and it has meant something to us. I can't take a tangible photo of that "something," but I just sense it has been there. Control. We're still in control . . of us.
History is on our side.
We really don't know what the state is going to do. It would seem that districts which have already consolidated would be targets for more of the same.
An independent old cuss usually is given some space. They stay in their homes longer in the first place.
There is no guarantee that an updated, well-equipped building will keep our school under our full control for a certain number of years.
But it will buy some time.
It will put some bounce back in our step, some arch in our backs and some bow in our necks!
And that's the other element this bond issue is about. It's about being able to rise up as a community and throw a celebratory fist in the air . . .and not worry about whether the person sitting next to us is doing the same.
There is an element in our community that is trying to make it grow. Bigger will be better in the Iowa of the future. Getting this done would make a statement. It would be a huge step.
We won't sink like so many blue and white rocks if we don't pass this or future school bond votes. And there will be others - coming right up, in smaller portions, if the Sept. 14 issue fails. Or, should history repeat, in about 30 years, if it passes this time.
Every failure would reduce our forward speed. It would be like a cancer. Our lights as a community would dim . . .slowly.
I think that Montezuma is a community that has lost some confidence in itself, over time. Maybe our real colors are faded blue and white, rather than royal blue and white.
Our confidence is not all gone. But do you hear yourself or others saying, "they can't do that," or "we aren't good enough/big enough/qualified enough for that," or "we're probably going to lose the school anyway"?
When you're constantly cutting down others, it's a symptom that you don't like or value yourself, either.
It wasn't just the school board that hired Dave Versteeg to be the superintendent. It was a committee, representing a cross-section or at least a sampling of the community, that made the recommendation.
They brought in a gentleman who is relentlessly, obsessively optimistic about building our school and the community. He is systematic. He can measure and quantify and explain things that are abstractions or formless to many of us. He has vision.
He has developed professional relationships with experts who know how to get things done.
We need to control what we can control, which means we had better continue down the path we put ourselves on.
There is still time to do that.
Money is a replenishable commodity. If you focus on ways to make it - or lose it - you likely will . . .
Lost confidence is more precious. Drive through any number of Iowa towns and you know the end of their vibrancy is gaining on them.
I have been discouraged at how little effort many in the community have made to learn about what is going on with this issue.
There is still time to learn.
Every voter owes it to themselves to make an informed decision. Not voting is not a choice. It's a no-choice.
We have that precious right to choose, so let us exercise it.
Questions About the Bus Barn? Here are the Answers
This article was written by Keith Brake, http://www.clownsiniowa.com/.
Sept. 2, 2010
The Sept. 14 school bond election is rushing up to meet area voters, and school superintendent Dave Versteeg discussed the topic with members of the Montezuma Community Boosters during their monthly meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 1, in Hometown Restaurant.
"It's a lot of money," Versteeg said about the $11.5 million bond issue which would fund most of the proposed school remodeling project. "But nobody is more concerned about that than our board."
"The board decided to try to do this all at one time rather than divide it up into smaller projects over time," Versteeg said. "We think now is the time, because interest rates are at 3.5 percent now - that's low - and construction bids are coming in 10 to 15 percent under cost estimates."
"The project could be divided into smaller hunks," Versteeg said. "But the board decided that would not be the best way to approach this. They reasoned that if you borrow every five years, it gets increasingly harder to pass the bond issue that would be needed each time. Plus, costs would gradually increase."
Versteeg said the size and cost of the district's new bus barn has become an issue in the election. He provided some rationale behind the decision to build that facility: "People have asked why there are more bays than buses," he said. "The board wanted to be able to house all of the district's other vehicles. And the district owns more than $1 million worth of vehicles," Versteeg said.
"Some who own pole buildings don't have cement floors and have asked why the bus barn does. The state fire marshal required it," Versteeg said.
Regarding the barn's location, Versteeg said it was more economical to locate it where it is - next to Badger-Gabriel Field - so that it could hook into the city's sewer system. And he said having restroom facilities in the barn was state-mandated. Had the barn been located on property across the street and two blocks north, a lift station or a septic system would have been required, possibly adding several hundred thousand dollars to the cost. Versteeg noted that six possible locations were studied.
"Some decisions have been made that were difficult in short-term, but I think will be better in the long run," Versteeg said.
"There has been some concern about a lack of detail provided," the superintendent said. "But it costs to produce a lot of detail. Also, there has been some concern about our adding eight new classrooms. We're really not, because we're replacing eight classrooms that will be lost in the remodeling," he said.
Sept. 2, 2010
The Sept. 14 school bond election is rushing up to meet area voters, and school superintendent Dave Versteeg discussed the topic with members of the Montezuma Community Boosters during their monthly meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 1, in Hometown Restaurant.
"It's a lot of money," Versteeg said about the $11.5 million bond issue which would fund most of the proposed school remodeling project. "But nobody is more concerned about that than our board."
"The board decided to try to do this all at one time rather than divide it up into smaller projects over time," Versteeg said. "We think now is the time, because interest rates are at 3.5 percent now - that's low - and construction bids are coming in 10 to 15 percent under cost estimates."
"The project could be divided into smaller hunks," Versteeg said. "But the board decided that would not be the best way to approach this. They reasoned that if you borrow every five years, it gets increasingly harder to pass the bond issue that would be needed each time. Plus, costs would gradually increase."
"Some who own pole buildings don't have cement floors and have asked why the bus barn does. The state fire marshal required it," Versteeg said.
Regarding the barn's location, Versteeg said it was more economical to locate it where it is - next to Badger-Gabriel Field - so that it could hook into the city's sewer system. And he said having restroom facilities in the barn was state-mandated. Had the barn been located on property across the street and two blocks north, a lift station or a septic system would have been required, possibly adding several hundred thousand dollars to the cost. Versteeg noted that six possible locations were studied.
"Some decisions have been made that were difficult in short-term, but I think will be better in the long run," Versteeg said.
"There has been some concern about a lack of detail provided," the superintendent said. "But it costs to produce a lot of detail. Also, there has been some concern about our adding eight new classrooms. We're really not, because we're replacing eight classrooms that will be lost in the remodeling," he said.
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