Mahomet-Seymour community provides district with insight after first round of Bulldog Blueprint

The Mahomet-Seymour School District has completed the first set of community engagement meetings that are supposed to help guide the Board of Education in creating a facilities plan that will address capacity issues. 

The next meeting, which will focus on answering community questions and finding common themes from small-group breakout sessions, is scheduled for June 8. 

The first session, which took place on April 22, 27 and 29, was focused on giving attendees some perspective on the state of facilities throughout the Mahomet-Seymour district. 

According to the presentation, which can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_qojmp4fb4, the district’s newest building, Middletown Prairie, completed in 2018, has $900,000 worth of facility needs. The presentation, though, didn’t specify those needs as it did for the district’s three remaining buildings, Lincoln Trail, Mahomet-Seymour Junior High and Mahomet-Seymour High School.

With a total price tag of $63,200,000 for repairs across the district, Lincoln Trail, including the bus barn ($2,300,000) will require $11,400,000 in repairs, according to the presentation. 

Currently, Lincoln Trail has 720 students in grades 3-5. The building has asbestos flooring, ceiling and lighting. BLDD Architect, Damien Schlitt, the district’s Architect of Record, said that specialty spaces, such as art, library and the gym needs updates, along with the lockers. 

Lincoln Trail received air conditioning in 2015, but Schlitt said that the boiler system and plumbing need to be replaced. He also said that some of the single-pane windows need to be replaced. 

Located on the same property, the Mahomet-Seymour Bus Barn is slated for a full-replacement. Schlitt said that the building itself has repair needs, including doors, lighting and the roof. He also said that the facility is undersized for the amount of buses that the district has. 

At the northwest corner of the Lincoln Trail property, Schlitt said that the bus barn location makes it hard to expand. 

At Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School, Schlitt said that the aging systems, asbestos flooring, ceilings and lighting need to be replaced.

Specialty spaces, such as the science labs, gym spaces and fine art rooms need to be updated. He also believes the library needs to be updated, as does hardware throughout the facility. 

Schlitt said that the administration area of the junior high school needed to be relocated, and the district should develop a “proper secured entry”, as identified by the school board, for guests and students. 

Home to 760 students, Mahomet-Seymour Junior High also needs a full-system replacement, including HVAC, plumbing, and electrical service to the facility. The junior high also has “uneven slabs”, needs a new roof and has several outdoor deficiencies due to weather. 

Schlitt said this would cost taxpayers $23,300,000.

Mahomet-Seymour High School currently has 950 students. Repairs for the 9-12 building including: replacement of flooring, ceiling and lighting throughout, upgrades to specialty spaces, such as science labs, gyms, locker rooms and fine arts areas would just be the beginning of the $27,600,000 repairs. 

The library, fieldhouse and entry have been upgraded in the last few years, but Schlitt added that the building needs a “full system replacement”: HVAC, expansion of sprinkler system, and upgrades to the plumbing, too. 

Over the decades, Mahomet-Seymour properties have seen additions and improvements, but between 1998 and 2011, when Mahomet-Seymour’s student population grew from 2704 (2009) to 3220 (2020), the district did not do anything to the facilities that would accommodate growth. 

In 2014, Pre-K and kindergarten moved from Middletown Elementary to Middletown Prairie Elementary and in 2018, the district sold Sangamon Elementary and moved first and second grade students to Middletown Prairie. 

While facility upgrades were addressed by the presentation, guests were curious as to why a plan to add additional capacity to the district’s buildings was not presented. 

The district did say, though, that in order to replace all of the buildings, taxpayers would be looking at a $175,000,000 investment: $42,900,000 (Middletown Prairie @ 122,616 sf), $29,000,000 (Lincoln Trail @76,167 sq), 31,000,000 (Mahomet-Seymour Junior High @88,691 sf), $72,000,000 (Mahomet-Seymour High School @205,345 sf) and $2,300,000 (bus barn). 

For more than a decade, Mahomet-Seymour Junior High has been labeled as beyond capacity, as Lincoln Trail and Middletown Prairie have also reached that point.

In 2019, Hall said that Middletown Prairie had three classrooms available, a classroom being used by reading specialists and two Pre-K classrooms. She also said Lincoln Trail had three available classrooms, but while Mahomet-Seymour Junior High and Mahomet-Seymour High School have been added onto, they have no additional classrooms. 

A 2019 email obtained with a FOIA request by the Mahomet Daily  from former Superintendent and building project manager Rick Johnston stated that the board of education should consider adding onto Middletown Prairie within the next 5 years.

Mahomet-Seymour Junior High has been classified as “landlocked” for the last decade while Lincoln Trail recently also took on that label. The district also owns Middletown Park, the Middletown Soccer fields and 13 Acres Park. 

Should any buildings be identified to rebuild on the remaining 75 acres Mahomet-Seymour owns on the east side of town, plans for development of that TIF district are for additional residential, commercial/industrial development around the property.

Community members who attended the meetings wanted a better sense of what the plan means in terms of tax dollars. 

Over the last decade the Mahomet-Seymour School District has bonded against the one-percent Champaign County sales tax dollars to build Middletown Prairie, and used the funds for projects such as renovations to restrooms, the high school library, and the renovation of the fieldhouse, among other projects. 

In 2020, Mahomet-Seymour received $2,289,262 in sales tax revenue. The district projects that they will receive $2,279,121 in 2021.

The district has signaled that the upcoming facility plans would also have to come with a tax referendum as early as 2022. 

Of the 13 school districts in Champaign County, Mahomet-Seymour’s tax-rate is the second lowest — between $4.50 and $4.75 per $100 of assessed valuation, according to district figures.

At the first Bulldog Blueprint community meeting on April 22, Hall recognized that the tax rate, which has remained fairly steady since 1990, is only part of the equation. Average home values in Mahomet are $229,279, according to Zillow, while the average home value in Rantoul, where the district with the highest tax rate resides, is $80,856. 

Comparatively, average home values in Champaign are $156,261; Tolono are $160,848; Urbana are $140,370; and St. Joseph are $191,054, according to Zillow. The Unity School District, located in Tolono, is the only district with a tax rate lower than Mahomet-Seymour.

Many school districts throughout the county are not dealing with increased student enrollment like Mahomet-Seymour is, though. 

After a dip in enrollment from 2006-2009, Mahomet-Seymour enrollment has increased from 2704 to 3220 in 2020. A demographic study funded by the district and the Village of Mahomet projects that student enrollment will increase to 3583 by 2030. 

Community members left the district with some thoughts and feedback after the first round of meetings. Many common themes included buses, technology, capacity, funding, outdoor spaces, security, trade education, adequately developing a plan for future growth, traffic flow, and meeting teacher/student needs. 

The district has said community engagement initiatives will continue through the summer and fall months until a plan is presented to the board of education in November.