Permission for the Holyoke school district to take a smaller state grant as the match for bonds approved in 2024

On August 20, 2024, the Holyoke school board approved the wording of Ballot Issue 5K, a school bond question. As the board adopted it, the question let the district borrow up to $14.84 million, with a repayment cost of up to $28 million and a district tax increase of up to $1.4 million a year. The increase in debt was "to occur only if" the district received more than $42 million from Building Excellent Schools Today, or BEST, the state's school construction grant program. The district's grant application says voters passed that bond in November 2024.

The grant the state has recommended is $37,511,924.54. Question 5A asks whether the district may accept that "guaranteed award amount" as the match for issuing general obligation bonds "already passed by voters in 2024 to build and furnish a new elementary school." The ballot says the grant funds are not required to be repaid. Voters in Holyoke School District RE-1J decide; the question appears on the Phillips County, Sedgwick County and Yuma County ballots.

The 2024 condition is a grant that "EXCEEDS $42 MILLION." The $37.5 million award does not meet it, so by its terms the 2024 authority allows no new borrowing at this award. The 2026 question asks permission to use the smaller award "as a match for the issuance of" the 2024 bonds; it does not mention the $42 million condition, and it prints no debt, repayment or tax figure. Read together, the two texts make a yes on 5A the step that would let the district issue the bonds, within the 2024 limits, and levy the tax to repay them.

The 2024 question lets the district levy property taxes "WITHOUT LIMIT AS TO THE MILL RATE" to repay the bonds, and lets it keep and spend that revenue above other annual limits from the date the bonds are issued until their final maturity. Neither question prints a final repayment year.

A no vote does not repeal the 2024 authorization. Its condition of a grant above $42 million would still apply, so under its text the bonds could not be issued with the $37.5 million award. The same state list ranks backup projects "in the event an awarded project fails to secure matching funds." On the state's list, an asterisk beside Holyoke's name leads to a note that reads, "Grants are contingent upon a November 2026 Bond Election."

The district's application lists $1,595,000 in outstanding bonded debt, and the state's 2025 property tax records show a bond levy of 3.021 mills within the district's total levy of 30.024 mills.

Holyoke's replacement elementary school ranks third among the BEST grants the state recommended for 2026-27. The state's list pairs the $37,511,924.54 grant with a local contribution of $14,840,000, for a project request of $52,351,924.54.

The state sets Holyoke's minimum local share at 36%. The application offers 28.3% and marks a waiver letter as required. The district says it has cut about $2 million from the project budget in response to feedback from the state and the Capital Construction Assistance Board.

The application counts 274 pupils in the project, at $191,065 each. The Department of Education's October pupil counts for the district fell from 594 in 2015-16 to 519 in 2025-26.

According to the district's application, Holyoke Elementary School was built in 1954 and later expanded four times. The district cites a 2024 state facility assessment finding that 93% of the building's systems are failing or require correction within five years. It reports that crushed utilities under the concrete slab have caused recurring flooding, gas leaks, electrical fires and prolonged building closures, and that failed stormwater pipes under the library left a sinkhole that cracked the slab and foundation.

The district proposes building the replacement school at the junior/senior high school site, creating one K-12 campus.