Columbia Public Schools outline plans for $2.5M from Ameren tax settlement
Mitchell Kaminski
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia Public Schools has determined how it will spend some of the $9 million it received from Boone County after a property-tax settlement with Ameren Missouri.
The county reached a resolution earlier this year in a long-running dispute before the Missouri State Tax Commission. The agreement resolved litigation over property taxes owed by Ameren from 2019-24, releasing impounded funds that were distributed to local taxing entities, including the school district.
During Thursday’s Long-Range Facilities Planning Committee meeting, the district decided to allocate $2.2 million of the $2.5 million in settlement funds approved by the finance committee toward facility improvements. The spending plan includes security camera upgrades, installation of LED lighting, bathroom renovations and enhanced safety measures around electrical systems.
The remaining portion of the $2.5 million allocated to the committee will be held in reserve in case project costs exceed initial estimates.
“They were originally thinking about giving the majority of that to facilities because we have so much deferred maintenance. However, after our APR scores came out and we identified that some of our subgroups still aren’t up to where they need to be, we want to put more money into working on achievement,” said April Ferrao, who is on Columbia Board of Education member and the chair of the Long-Range Planning Committee.
“They paired that down to $2.5 million for long-range planning to work with. And so tonight, we got a presentation on where would be a good place to put those funds. One of the biggest needs in the district is security cameras. We have about a thousand in the district right now. There are certainly areas where we need to add security cameras.”
Ferrao said security cameras have been a longstanding concern for the district. Many of CPS’ cameras are more than five years old, and some newer models under consideration are not compatible with the district’s existing systems. The committee allocated $1.5 million for camera upgrades, with the goal of replacing all cameras within the next year, prioritizing older buildings with the greatest needs.
“You have some that aren’t working. You have some that maybe the picture quality is no longer really good, and then you have some that are in places that we never find anything on. Maybe it needs to go into a new place. Then of course, we have places where maybe we need to add more cameras,” Ferrao said. “We certainly have cameras outside some bathrooms, particularly at the secondary level, but not all of them. So this will help address that. We have buildings that have large parking lots, so we might want to get better views of what’s going on outside the building, better angles.”
The bathroom upgrades are intended to bring facilities into compliance with ADA requirements, particularly at Hickman High School, where many restrooms currently do not meet accessibility standards.
Last year the district allocated $150,000 to bathroom upgrades at Hickman, which Farrao said will help address most of the needs in the 100-year-old building. The teachers’ union also requested adding additional staff bathrooms to the high schools, something the settlement money will also help address.
“There’s not a faculty bathroom on the second floor of Hickman. I personally think it’s always a good idea to have a separate faculty bathroom or adult bathroom in any of our buildings. So ideally, adults would use they’re not cohabitating in the same bathroom as students,” Ferrao said. “If you have a teacher or an adult who really needs the bathroom quickly, they can’t. They have to go to the common restroom. And so I think that’s just a good practice for us to get it. But there are a lot of our buildings that have dedicated faculty restrooms.”
The bathrooms are not expected to be finished until next year because most of the work will need to be done over the summer.
The committee also voted to allocate more than $150,000 to replace fluorescent light bulbs in the high schools with LED lights, which district officials say are more energy efficient.
An additional $140,000 will go toward safety around some of the district’s electrical cords running through the ceilings to address fire safety.
“The fire safety is actually related to areas in our buildings where we have poles that go up into the ceiling and the ceiling is not quite sealed enough to prevent smoke or fire from going up into it. So they’re going to work on sealing that up,” Ferrao said. “I just think it’s really exciting that we’ve got this extra money that we’re able to focus on our critical safety needs in the district. We’re going to have a lot more. We have several hundred million dollars of deferred maintenance and this really helps us start attacking some very critical things.”
Deputies and staff with the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department hand out presents as part of AFL-CIO’s Adopt-A-Family program on Thursday in St. Joseph. 
Members of the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department pose for a group photo before handing out gifts from AFL-CIO’s Adopt-A-Family program on Thursday in St. Joseph. 
