The De Soto Area School District will be asking voters to approve a $2.585 million referendum on April 6 to repair and improve all three of its school buildings.

The referendum comes after an $8 million ballot question in De Soto was defeated by a vote of 762-334 in November of 2009.

De Soto School Board President Rick Pedretti said the district learned two important things after the failed vote. The first is that another referendum question would have to be cut down to include only "the absolute needs of the district." The second is that the district has to get its constituency, mainly the parents and grandparents of students, to vote.

"We were shocked that the referendum lost by 67 percent of the vote," De Soto District Administrator David Strudthoff said. "But when we looked at the analysis of the voting record, what’s considered to be the base of the district, the parents and grandparents, 60 percent of them didn’t vote… Half of them aren’t registered to vote."

While the district received strong support in the villages of De Soto and Stoddard, other areas of the district turned the referendum down handily.

School board member Kirk Holliday said the issue comes down to apathy. He said if only people knew the conditions at the school, they would be in favor of the referendum. However, that would mean they’d have to also go vote, which is his main concern.

"I have gone door-to-door to talk to people," Holliday said. "People have said they know that something needs to be done, but they didn’t vote. What we’re asking them now is to just please vote."

De Soto’s main school building, the middle/high school was built in 1953. While it has had some improvements, there have been no major renovations to the building since the state’s budget cap was instituted in 1993. Strudthoff said that De Soto is the only school district in the area that has not passed some type of "bricks and mortar" referendum to improve its facilities.

With the budget cap preventing the board from spending money to improve the facilities, the infrastructure at the district’s buildings has fallen into disrepair.

School buildings that are supposed to run modern computer systems are saddled with 1950s and 1960s electrical service. In some places, there are fuse boxes instead of circuit breakers. Seemingly every room of the school has multiple outlet strips plugged into a single outlet.

The plumbing system at the middle/high school cannot accept a soft water system, and hard water calcium and lime has affected every area of plumbing.

"There is a maze of abandoned plumbing and cobbled plumbing repairs in the building," Pedretti said.

"We’re at the point, where you have to shut off half the water to the school to fix one water faucet or toilet," Strudthoff said.

Meanwhile, the district’s two elementary schools, Stoddard and Prairie View, are out of space. Closets are being used as instructional space. Currently at Stoddard Elementary School, the art program is called "Art in a Cart," because art supplies are wheeled from classroom to classroom.

The $2.585 million referendum will not fix all of the problems at the three school buildings.

"This won’t fix 57 years worth of issues, but it will definitely stop the hemorrhaging," Strudthoff said. "Our facilities are aging. When you talk about basic needs, you don’t get more basic than this."

It is what the district’s referendum planning team is calling "a common sense approach" to upgrading its facilities.

A break down of how the money will be spent includes:

-- $459,000 will go toward elementary school classroom additions and remodeling;

-- $417,000 will go toward remodeling high school science and music rooms;

-- $532,000 will go toward improving the high school locker rooms, the vocational/technical rooms, a new school entrance and relocating the weight room;

-- $777,000 will go toward capital maintenance improvements such as plumbing and electrical work.

At Stoddard Elementary School, the plan calls for 2,200 square feet of additional space and the remodeling of 900 square feet. Also included for Stoddard are roof repairs, upgraded restrooms, window replacements, upgraded plumbing fixtures and making room for art classes.

At Prairie View Elementary School, the plan calls for establishing separate space for the art and music programs. Also, there is to be more storage for art and music supplies. A new well will also be drilled at Prairie View, which has high nitrate levels in drinking water.

At the middle/high school, upgraded plumbing fixtures will be installed, the locker rooms will be upgraded, the vocational classrooms will be remodeled, the restrooms will be relocated and a new lobby will be created. Also included is the upgrade of the school’s electrical and plumbing systems.

The district has mapped out how it will acquire the $2.585 million if the referendum is approved. Strudthoff said the district may qualify for both Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (QZAB) and Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCB). The QZAB program requires the district to match 10 percent of the bond amount in donations. If that is met, the interest rate for the bond can drop to 1 percent or less. The Qualified School Construct Bonds program, which would allow the district to borrow $1 million at zero to 1 percent interest ends at the end of 2010.

Strudthoff said under the district’s bond plans for the referendum, the 10-year-note will cost property owners $78 per year for each $100,000 in property they own.

Should the referendum fail -- it’s a prospect that the referendum planning team has considered, but would prefer not to handle,by 2013 the maintenance costs at the district will surpass the entire budget spent on textbooks, instructional supplies and computer software. Cuts in programs including co-curricular activities "will have to be made" to pay for maintenance.

"Apathy is the biggest concern," Strudthoff said. "We think we have a sound plan. The No. 1 issue is apathy."

The school board has set up informational meetings about the referendum. It has developed a Power Point presentation showing the problems and how the referendum money will be used. A meeting held just last week drew only 10 people.

"People need to know that their vote matters," Pedretti said.

Holliday said the need for the referendum is self-evident.

"If anyone hasn’t been able to attend our meetings and wants to see the buildings for themselves, they should schedule a walk-through," Holliday said. "Come take a look at what we’re struggling with. They can come see and make a judgment for themselves."