Written By: Lucas Kenney
Published Date: 11-20-2025
On Wednesday, November 19, USD 407 and Shaeffer Architecture held a meeting for the community to come and express their concerns, questions, or statements about the November bond question. There was lots of good discussion and questions answered.
The meeting started with Superintendent Jordan Perez presenting a packet to the attendees that included the current bond package, how much each individual project would cost, and then the tax impact for homeowners, commercial building owners, and agriculture landowners. This included impacts for a 20-year bond, 15-year bond, and a 10-year bond, as well as in the amounts of $7.5 million, $10 million, and $13.5 million if they were to cut down the bond. You can find the packet attached right below here.
After this, Perez, Malcolm Watkins with Shaeffer Architecture, and Mandy Trout with the Steering Committee took and answered questions the community had. Lots of great discussion was had and many questions answered. In the end, it seemed that stakeholders wanted to keep the bond package the same.
One topic of discussion revolved around communication, to which a lot of people felt there wasn’t enough. To help with communication, Perez sent out an email which reads:
First, I want to thank the community for coming out last night to discuss the USD 407 facility needs. There were many great questions and conversations. A takeaway from the meeting is that people felt they were not informed. Because of that, I feel it is important to provide an opportunity for the community to sign up to receive our alerts. If you would like to be added, please complete this short 3-question survey and we will add you to our system: https://forms.gle/rJTdS2yySuDV3FuZ9.
This meeting is a step in the right direction for the community and the Steering Committee, who is gearing up to put the bond question back on ballots in March.
