001Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. We are here live at Jackson High School for a bond presentation 2025. We have a PowerPoint presentation for you and other information to disseminate. So, thanks for tuning in at home. Some folks are here at the Jackson High School Media Center in person and we're going to stick right to our bond presentation slideshow. So hopefully you can see a little bit what's going on here. Also, uh you have an opportunity to email in questions. Where do we send those questions today? >> They can use the chat feature right under the video. >> All right. So, if you have any questions from home, please use the chat feature. I love to interact with the audience to find out what information you need to be able to vote yes. On November
0024th, Jackson Public Schools is pleased to present a zero tax increase bond program that will raise $126 million to take care of a lot of important items for the school district. So, you can go to our website at jpsk12.org, org. But we're going to really stress four key areas of focus today. Infrastructure, career readiness, hands-on learning, and a consistent school experience. So, to take you back a little bit, we'll tell you how this plan was developed. We had a facilities condition assessment. The experts came in and they walked through every building that Jackson Public Schools own. seven elementary schools, a middle school, high school, and whatever properties we have to look at the condition of our facilities because that's our primary task to make sure we're taking care of them and they're in great use
003for our students and staff. Uh safety is priority number one there. We also had a program assessment where we surveyed our students, our teachers, administrators to find out what's working well and how can we continue to approve improve upon our programs at Jackson Public Schools. And fin uh finally, we had a financial analysis completed to talk about um how much money would be available and how much these things would cost. We uh had 46 members in our bond planning committee that came together, multiple sessions at Jackson High School, mostly media center. You see some images here of this very diverse group, some community stakeholders, some staff, employees, administration, and then facilities and program assessment information was shared so we understand where we're at and where we want to go. So, a lot of decisions were
004made at that time. the one area that we all agreed upon unanimously. We're so proud to be able to offer a bond program that has a zero tax increase to the community. There was other areas that we agreed upon strongly and there was some things that kind of got left off the original plans that were added back on later. So, I'll explain that. Once the bond planning committee kind of came to a consensus, the Jackson Public Schools Board of Education approved moving forward with a ballot proposal that we'll discuss here today. Again, four key features that we're going to touch on each one of these infrastructure being the first. This is some images of things that got updated in our last program. So, we ran a successful bond campaign in 2018. um everything could not
005be accomplished at that time because our taxes did increase slightly to 6.25 mills. Uh but infrastructure was taken care of in some places. That was about 7 years ago. So throughout that process um we looked at uh different upgrades for technology and parking lots and playgrounds, fencing. Um also on this bond program is the Jackson High School tower restoration. Jackson High School turns 100 years old this year. The building was built in 1926. That's kind of an icon for the community and our school and it's starting to crumble. And again, we want to keep our facilities top-notch, safe, and restore the uh beauty of all things Jackson Public Schools. HVAC is a significant part of this bond program. We talk about comfortable and safe spaces. We talk about our hot days here at Jackson High,
006specifically in August, September, May, and June. We talk about our medically fragile students and staff members that um we have to have safe spaces and we have to have conditions conducive to best learning. So, in the 2018 bond program, we took care of Cascades. John R. Lewis and Monttoauri school have air conditioning and most their spaces are completely and when we talk about a consistent school experience this time we're coming back around to the schools that do not have air conditioning or those safe and comfortable learning environments. So HVAC upgrades will continue to be a significant emphasis in this bond program. Other things at Jackson High Schools, the bleachers, the stadium out there during homecoming, we had those uh bleachers were filled with guest Viking agogo used for a lot of different purposes. Once the
007concrete starts to deteriorate and get cracks, it only gets worse from there. And we want to continue to have the best facilities around that are safe and well-maintained. Again, when you have cracks in the surface and the bleachers, there's everything underneath. It could be locker rooms, it could be infrastructure, the electrical, all those things will have a negative impact, especially during the harsh winters and the inclement weather that we get in Michigan. uh new stadium lights. There's old light bulbs out there and we talk about um increasing the efficiency of our lighting systems here at Jackson High School football stadium baseball also at Parkside at the Mihall field and tennis courts. other upgrades there. A significant area through the program assessment, what our community is asking for is to ensure our Jackson High School students
008are ready for college and career workforce when they leave Jackson Public Schools. So, we have students that are doing very well. We celebrated 50 students that are AP scholars and our uh advanced AP curriculum offerings here. 150 students attending their career center and another 150 in the early college program offered to 9th through 13th grade students can stay on with Jackson Public Schools and work towards their associates degree. Other things that we're very good at are uh the marketing and entrepreneurship program and we want to continue those programs so that Jackson Public Schools is at the forefront of education in the community. We have a strong collaboration and partnership with area businesses through our co-op program that we want to continue to enhance. And we're looking into the future and other opportunities that are unique
009to JPS with innovation. Thinking of the AV club at Jackson High School. We were afforded special opportunities with the I call it the jumbotron out at the football stadium as well as the natatorium or the aquatic center. And there's a DAXtronics curriculum that goes along with that that we have a group of students and we want to continue to grow that into opportunities that um will lead them to opportunities in the U workforce as well as at the collegiate level. I think of uh JTV for example, a strong partner in our community and they need a lot of um employees and um interns and that provides kind of a pipeline for Jackson Public Schools. When our students possess those skills to run that technology, they're taught the curriculum here at Jackson High School and we
010have a space at the innovation center that will continue to enhance those offerings as well as other trade programs. We think about robotics. We think about a K12 STEM program at Jackson Public Schools that we continue to emphasize because that's what our community is asking for. Our community is providing resources to that end so that our again our end product become kids that are competing. And when I think of the world of robotics, it's students supporting students, but it's the community involvement that's important as well. So, we look to be great partners with the community. That's why we wanted to get this information out to you again so you're educated voters on November 4th. Vote yes for JPS innovation center will be load located here at Jackson High School. So there's an image on the
011screen. Uh there's a display that we continue to work upon. The one thing that I want to um share is this will take the place of Reynolds Hall. That's the location of Reynolds Hall where currently the superintendent's office, human resource, finance, all administrative offices are in Reynolds Hall and there's significant infrastructure work to do in that building. It's older and in need of a lot of repair from all the way down to the studs primarily. So, there's the roof that needs repair. Um, this is the one location in Jackson Public Schools that does not have the safe and secure entryway. So, that's important to our district and our community that we continue to offer safe buildings. That was a main priority in 2018. And this is the one building that's really missing out there. So,
012instead of investing about a million dollars into that facility, we that's been significantly renovated over the year. Here are some images here that show the now and then is to build this innovation center that will have a direct impact on student achievement and career opportunities. So, we'll come back to that slideshow presentation to show some uh updates of what that facility could mean for the students and the community at Jackson Public Schools. Another significant ask of our students and staff are hands-on learning. So, we're not in the age of sit and get anymore. We want kids to interact with the curriculum and so that's a big part of the bond program in the classroom. Lots of upgrades done throughout the last program and we want to continue to build on those um collaborative learning opportunities
013and ways to continue to engage kids where they get excited about the things that are happening in the classroom. Again, this bond program will touch every building throughout the district. On average, our buildings are approximately 78 years old, but the couple buildings that need the least work are Cascades cuz it was built brand new school back in 2018 and John R. Lewis about 90% brand new there. So we don't have to continue to update and fix those things cuz we were good stewards with that last bond program and able to uh do a lot of work that is still uh having a significant impact on our school experience today. Again in 2018 we couldn't ask for everything. All right we had a tax increase that went up to 6.2 mills. And so this time we're
014coming around. I don't want one school to have everything that they need and some schools still lagging behind or missing out. The good news about that program being good stewards of the community's uh resources was not only did we do the things that we said we are going to do, the community came alongside us and we are able to accomplish additional projects as well. In addition, because the economy and the property values in Jackson continued to rise, Jackson Public Schools was able to reduce the 6.2 mills being collected last year by 0.25. So the current mill rate is 5.95 and that is our proposal for this upcoming millillage. If you vote yes, it will continue to be 5.95. And that puts us middle of the pack in our community. And our auditors were here yesterday.
015They said that's considered low compared to the rest of the state of Michigan. So, we're excited about the work that we can do and not raising your taxes. In summary, uh safe environments, taking care of our assets and our investments to the district, uh providing a healthy and safe school environment, listening to the needs of our student and staff is at the utmost priority. We have a district goal to recruit and retain in our area. And so when we go to our stakeholders and they tell us this is what we need to be able to do the best job we possibly can. This is how our students want to learn and be prepared and we ask the community the same questions. That's why we do community forums reaching out a lot of stakeholders in the
016community. Our bond advocacy committee continues to say, "Let's continue to focus on education because education is a significant uh determining factor on why people choose to live here in Jackson. And we want to come alongside Jackson with our improvement efforts and a quality education. Again, zero impact or zero increase to the tax base 5.95 and preserving the general fund. So, there's two pots of funds currently, but we do not have a bond program, so we're asking for one. What we do have is the general fund. And there was a lot of information out in the community recently about a state budget. The state budget and the general fund dollars that we receive, we want to go directly to education. This is staffing, this is student supplies, this are uh benefits. All right? We want to
017we don't want to have to take out of those general funds which should go to education to fix leaky roofs and deal with a flood issue at Parkside when you have a $2 million flood and a lot of significant repairs are in place. when items break down, which they will when you have the amount of facilities that we do. We want to have a bond program to be able to fix the f the facility needs in our buildings without taking away from the dollars that could be going into education. >> All right, let's try. Was that the slide before? Okay, keep going past that. needs in our buildings without >> All right. So, one of the questions in a community forum was uh to be more specific on what the new innovation center could look
018like. So, we have some new renderings here. What we did is we took some items from the current Reynolds Hall from the library space. There's some brick work that you can see on the left hand side and the fireplace. So we want to continue the tradition or the significance of Reynold Hall in the district. So we want to take some key elements of that and bring them over into the new innovation space. So, these are renderings as the architects continue to work alongside of us at Jackson Public Schools and talk about the not only the programming, but really have the community voice alongside of us and involved in the decisions that we're making specific to this bond program. So we talked about audio visual, we talked about digital media and making sure our students have
019the technology that they need and moving into the future. We talked about the trades program and not falling behind in the community and not having to catch up, but have robust programming. Our students are state competitors in the DECA program. So we have a strong entrepreneur program that we like to lift up. They learn about financial literacy. They learn about competition and again it's realworld and interactive. These are not things we're proposing to do. These are things that we're already doing well that we want to continue to enhance the opportunities and the exposure to continue to be the school of choice in the community of Jackson. >> They learn about competition and again it's real world and interactive. This is what your bond program is going to look like. Some voters have already got out
020and voted yes for JPS through the uh absentee ballot. So some folks will just have this on their docket and some will be voting around city council and some in Summit Township could be different, but that's the exact language. You can go to jpsk12.org and see this information up close and personal. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions. If you want to visit Reynolds Hall, if you have further questions, we have frequently asked questions online, this is my phone number here, 84122000, superintendent's office and email address as well. >> Remember this date is uh coming up very soon, November 4th is is very important not only for Jackson Public Schools but the community at large. Again, a thriving community is a community that has a strong school system and Jackson has been very
021supportive of education in the past and we appreciate your continued support. When we talk about advocacy, these are other groups that are out there supporting. We have a group called AllIn for JPS. They have their own special Facebook post. We ask you to like it, join it, and share the great things that you see there. information about the bond program, frequently asked questions, and testimonials from students and staff and community members alike. We're on Facebook, Instagram, have the hashtag there. Uh, currently we have an advocacy team that's going doortodoor. Uh, if you're interested in a yard sign to show your support, we have um information where you can leave your address and a yard sign will be delivered to you. And we're just grateful again for our advocacy team to coming alongside of us going
022doortodoor and trying to uh garner the support for education here in Jackson and Jackson public schools where you can leave your address and a yard sign will be delivered to you and we're just grateful again for our advocacy. Is >> that the last slide? >> All right. Well, this concludes our Are there any questions before we Is there anything that we missed? >> Is there anything that we want to touch on? >> Just can you go over how come we can do this without a increase in tax? >> Is that the last slide? >> Yes. So, a lot of people said, "Boy, this is too good to be true. You're going to raise $126 million for a 0% increase. How do you do that?" Um, again, it's a window of opportunity. the way that the
023debt was structured, the more that we paid it down, the more that um you know, we finished the last bond proposal. So, a lot of people just uh think of it as a refinance. So, whatever debt is still there, we can go back and refinance, take out those funds, and continue to extend the debt further out with a yes vote today. We'll extend the debt out a number of years, and then we'll be able to collect those funds now. And so a lot of people like to call it a renewal or a refinance because that helps them to make sense of how do you secure $126 million without increasing the debt. Again, part of it is because the economy here has done well. Part of it is because we were good stewards of the money
024and we're able to decrease the debt. And the other thing is, you know, those needs continue to arise throughout the district. So we do have things that we need to accomplish. And this is a very unique opportunity because many times when you have to do this amount of work, it will increase taxes. But at this time under um there's no other possibility if we have more work to do. We won't come back and those statistics will not change. It'll continue to be a 0% increase. That is the terms that we're voting on today. >> Great question. >> Any other questions? something that we missed, something that people are asking. >> All right. Well, we appreciate your support and thank you for joining this informationational session on Jackson Public Schools. This is Superintendent Jeremy Patterson thing
025saying thank you and don't forget to vote yes on November 4th for Jackson Public Schools. Amen. >> Have a great evening.