THIS PAPER ENDORSES neither political candidates nor millage/bond proposals. We ascribe to the belief that an educated readership doesn’t need to be told whom or what to vote for. The Ann Arbor Independent educates readers on the issues. One such important issue facing voters on the upcoming May 5 ballot is a proposed AAPS bond debt extension.

The AAPS Board of Trustees, at the urging of Superintendent Dr. Jeanice Kerr Swift, voted in January 2015 to ask voters to extend the debt millage for 10 years at the current rate of up to 2.45 mills to raise a projected $33 million to pay for new buses, security improvements and classroom furnishings.

The school district’s list of proposed expenditures includes the following:

$10.2 million for new buses

$10 million for classroom furniture and window treatments

$5 million for security upgrades

$4 million for performing arts improvements

$1.6 million for playground equipment

$60,000 to upgrade recreational facilities

As the paper has editorialized previously, $10.2 million to replace virtually the entire bus fleet, as opposed to laying out a plan and a financing strategy to do so slowly over the next five years with existing revenue, is not a fiscally prudent or environmentally sound strategy. The EPA recommends that school districts not replace buses when those buses are less than 15 years old (which the majority of AAPS buses are) but rather cut the amount of time all buses idle.

Furthermore, AAPS Trustee Susan Baskett, who was placed on the Board of the AAATA, and whose term ends in 2018, has done little to represent the transit needs of the district’s students or the district itself. We’d hoped Baskett would spearhead strategies to encourage AAPS middle and high school students to use alternative transportation—with a student pass modeled on the $10 per year GoPass! That program subsidizes downtown businesses and their employees.

In Nov. 2013, the AAPS Board of Trustees asked taxpayers to renew an additional millage for property upkeep, including refurbishment of athletic fields. This present millage proposal is asking for $1 million for the refurbishment of athletic fields. The district has no comprehensive plan which addresses poor upkeep of its elementary and middle school playing fields. There are no plans to abandon pay-to-play fees for district students, and AAPS charges exorbitant fees to local sports teams to rent school playing fields. Surrounding public school districts have taken advantage of AAPS’s poor management. Saline Public Schools, for example,  encourages the use of its facilities through better upkeep and rental fees that are a fraction of those charged by AAPS.

In 2012, voters approved a $45 million technology bond. In Nov. 2008 and 2013, voters renewed a sinking fund millage to be used toward repairs and improvements of AAPS’ physical properties. Upkeep of AAPS capital assets is crucial, but so are fiscal responsibility and transparency.

It’s prudent to invest in the improvement and upkeep of capital assets. It’s also prudent to push the AAPS to exercise better fiscal planning and management of those same capital assets.