PROVO BOND PROPOSAL CUT TO $18 MILLION

The Provo School District won't be building any new schools soon even if voters approve a September bond proposal now set at $18 million.

Provo School Board members Tuesday shaved $14 million from a proposed $32 million bond for an elementary school, a middle school and a high school. They modified the proposal to include $4 million for the renovation of Franklin Elementary School, $3.7 million for additions to Provo High and $8 million for a middle school.The first two projects would be completed by fall 1993 or 1994. The proposal leaves the date for building a middle school open. It would be built if enrollment soars in the next few years. The board excluded an elementary school and a high school from the bond proposal.

The owner of a $75,000 home would pay an addition $39 a year in property tax should the bond be approved Sept. 8.

The district's Facilities and Growth Advisory Committee recommended in February that the three schools be built over a five-year period based on projected enrollment increases. The committee estimated the next five years would bring about 2,000 students to the district across the three school levels.

Board members aren't sure the committee's forecast is accurate. Enrollment has declined at the elementary level, remained constant in middle schools and increased in high schools.

"The board is not ready to go only on projections," board member David Weight said. "Everybody's coming up with different numbers." District officials will spend a lot of time counting heads in the next few years.

Superintendent Kay Laursen said the proposal is a compromise based on needs and affordability. The district doesn't have the money to operate and maintain a new school, so another tax increase would coincide with the building of a school.

Falling interest rates and overestimating enrollments cost the district more than a $1 million the past few years, said Lynn Smith, budget administrator. The district is making less on its investments and savings. Also, lower-than-estimated enrollment forces the district to return state money to the state, which allocates the dollars based on student population projections.

"We're barely hanging on by a thread in our maintenance and operation budget," board President Mossi White said.

Larry Walters, a facilities and growth committee member, admonished board members to not ignore the needs of crowded Provo High students.

"I don't think that the pressure is going to go away," he said. "Please don't let them sit for five years and then decide to build another school."

White said the board would consider boundary changes between Provo and Timp View highs and pulling ninth-graders from the high schools to place them in a new middle school, should it be built. Laursen said year-round high school would also be an option.