News photo by Crystal Nelson Alpena Public Schools Superintendent John VanWagoner on Monday shows where water is leaking from the steam boilers at Ella White Elementary School. The steam boilers, which were installed in the 1980s, are rusted and leaking water.

ALPENA — Alpena Public Schools may ask voters again to support a bond sale to replace most of the district’s aging boilers and roofs, as well as “basic security” upgrades.

The APS Board of Education on Monday agreed to let Superintendent John VanWagoner make a pre-application phone call to the Michigan Treasury next Tuesday, although no official vote was taken.

VanWagoner said the call would help him explore options that are available to the district, such as how much different property tax rates could generate for the district and the dates of upcoming elections. Board President Gordon Snow will sit in on the call.

VanWagoner said he’s thinking the district needs “roofs, boilers, basic security.”

“Those kinds of things are just the reality of what, in my mind right now, would be what a mill increase or renewal would do,” he said.

Monday’s directive comes nearly six months after voters soundly rejected a $63 million bond measure that would have been used to replace boilers and roofs, as well as build a new Ella White Elementary School and make significant remodels and safety improvements to Alpena High School, among other measures.

Property owners in the district would have repaid the bonds over 25 years through higher tax rates.

VanWagoner told trustees on Monday some of the district’s facilities have reached a point where he’s worried about getting through the winter. With the aging roofs, VanWagoner said he’s worried about the spring thaw. He said the average age of a lot of the roofs are between 20 and 25 years, well past their warranties.

VanWagoner said the district has to consider something quick, because he’s terribly afraid the district could end up with a building unfit for school. He said a roof will continue to deteriorate, and eventually, could have something collapse.

“I’m very worried for the kids that are in those classrooms, and I feel obligated to bring that to the board sooner rather than later,” he said, adding officials would ultimately decide what they want to pursue in 2020.

VanWagoner said consultants with the districts architect and consulting firm have been meeting with residents, and will continue to do so next week. He said he would like to invite the consultants either to a special board meeting or to the board’s next regular meeting to present their findings. He said the board would also be able to learn the results of a parent-conducted survey of 250 people.

“I think it’s important for the board to hear from them what community members are saying,” he said.

Trustee Tom Hillberg said they have to try something.

“I guess, if it doesn’t pass, we have to try something else,” he said. “It’s not like we can get a loan or anything like that.”

Trustee Stacey Parr said it goes back to the community education piece.

“We need to make the community aware of what all options are,” she said. “Worst-case scenario is we suddenly end up with a building that we can’t put students in.”

Parr said officials would have to spell out emergency options for the public. She said that, if those emergency options include loans, the public needs to know how they’re going to be paid for. If the taking out a loan means the district would have to make cuts in the budget elsewhere to make the loan payments, the public needs to know where those cuts might come from.

“These are the realities that we face, that the vast majority of members of the community I don’t think have their heads wrapped around,” she said. “It’s painfully obvious that we have a public relations challenge.”

Property owners are still paying off the district’s last round of bonds, sold in the 1990s. The tax for those bonds is expected to expire in 2021.

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.