For the second time this year, voters will decide the fate of a multimillion-dollar bond issue for Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools. 

Voters rejected a $420 million KCKPS bond in April. 

The bond on the November ballot is smaller and won’t raise property tax rates, the board says, because the board will reduce taxes in other areas.

But as a tradeoff, the revised plan for spending the money includes fewer projects and affects only a handful of schools. 

The school board approved the plan in mid-August. 

Here’s what you need to know about what a bond is, how it would change schools and what it would mean for your taxes. 

What will I see on my ballot? 

Here’s what your ballot will say: 

Shall the following be adopted? 

Shall Unified School District No. 500, Wyandotte County, Kansas (Kansas City), issue general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $180,000,000, to pay the costs to make improvements in the District, including the following: (a) demolish, renovate and/or rebuild certain existing facilities including Silver City Elementary School and Noble Prentis Elementary School; (b) acquire, construct, equip, furnish, repair, remodel and make additions to buildings used for school district purposes including construction of two new middle schools and a new elementary school and an addition to Sumner Academy of Arts and Science; (c) acquire and improve sites; (d) make all other necessary improvements related thereto; and (e) pay fees and expenses related thereto; all pursuant to the provisions of K.S.A. 10-101 et seq., K.S.A. 25-2018(f), K.S.A. 72-5457, and K.S.A. 72-5458 et seq.?

What does a yes vote mean?

Approving a bond gives a school district permission to borrow money — $180 million in this case — and pay off the loan with property taxes. 

In Kansas, school bonds can be used to purchase land, pay for building-related projects and buy buses. 

They’re a popular way to finance big construction projects, such as new buildings, that wouldn’t otherwise fit into a district’s budget.

How would the money be spent? 

The $180 million would be spent on four major projects: 

• Replacing Central Middle School.
• Replacing Argentine Middle School.
• Replacing Silver City and Noble Prentis elementary schools with one new school.
• Adding classrooms to Sumner Academy of Arts and Science. 

How would the spending break down?

The district estimates each middle school would cost less than $70 million. The elementary school would cost less than $40 million. And adding classrooms to Sumner would cost about $7 million. Those costs could increase the longer that projects are delayed.

Why these projects? 

The bond is aimed at improving schools that are in poor condition or too small. 

The middle school buildings that would close have an average age of 102 years, district spokesperson Edwin Birch said in an email. 

Central Middle School and Sumner Academy are using detached modular classrooms to serve all of their students. Meanwhile, Argentine Middle School is dealing with building problems that include flooding and plumbing issues.

According to district records, Silver City Elementary School was built in 1971, while Noble Prentis Elementary School has existed since 1911 but was most recently rebuilt around 1955. 

Some of the projects are also linked. The new Argentine Middle School would be built on the current Silver City site after Silver City students move into a new school at the Noble Prentis location. 

How would a bond affect property taxes? 

A $180 million bond would normally raise property taxes on a $100,000 home by about $29 a year and a $200,000 home by about $57 a year. The district says median home value in Kansas City, Kansas, is $112,500.

But the school board is committed to reducing property taxes in other areas — capital outlay and the library fund — to offset the increase.

That means your property tax rate would hold steady if the bond passes, but the public library would take a nearly $2 million hit to its operating budget. 

The district’s chief of operations, Steve Lilly, said that although the district would have less money in its capital outlay fund, that would be manageable because newer buildings are cheaper to maintain. 

Taxpayers would still be on the hook to pay off the bond even if a future board decided to raise property taxes for other reasons. 

If the bond doesn’t pass, property taxes won’t necessarily go down. It would be particularly difficult to reduce capital outlay taxes without a bond, Lilly said, because the district would have to be prepared for high building maintenance costs. 

How is this bond vote different from the one in April? 

In April, KCKPS asked for a $420 million bond that would have raised taxes.

That bond covered a longer list of projects, affecting every school except five of the newest ones. 

It would have combined four additional elementary schools into two new buildings, spent more than $100 million on deferred maintenance and building upgrades and added classrooms and gyms to more schools. 

That bond failed by a margin of 58% opposed to 42% in favor, so the board came back with a pared-down plan that won’t raise taxes but covers a much smaller number of projects.