Ep 55 - Liz Littleton and Aaron Boyce - No-Tax Increase Bond Explained: Classrooms, Arts, Community Growth

The morning starts light—melting snow, sponsor love, and a social media peek behind the curtain—then surges with a high-tempo hoops breakdown that feels like courtside seats. Dexter’s size and pacing, Sikeston’s pressure defense, a flurry of steals, and shooters finding rhythm set the tone for a team built on secondary break, spacing, and shared scoring. It’s the kind of system kids love because effort turns into touches, touches into points, and points into momentum. With district seeding on the horizon, the vibe is confident and earned.

Then we pivot to the decision that could shape Sikeston for the next decade. Guests Aaron Boyce and Liz Littleton, co-chairs of Better Schools, Better Communities, join us to unpack a no-tax increase bond that funds three targeted projects: nine new classrooms each at Wing and Lee Hunter, plus new performing arts classrooms at the high school. They explain the mechanics in plain English—responsible refinancing of existing bonds to unlock about $11.3 million without raising the current levy—and why phased investments are part of a long-term facilities plan that the community asked for after 2014.

Equity and safety sit at the center. Wing and Lee Hunter have modern gyms, cafeterias, libraries, and FEMA-rated safe rooms; Southeast Elementary doesn’t, and its floodplain status blocks FEMA support. Rather than pour outsized dollars into an aging site, the district would consolidate grades into expanded, newer schools and repurpose Southeast for services like special services offices or an expanded autism program. The result: a better elementary experience for every child and dedicated space for band, choir, orchestra, and drama—programs that enrich school culture and keep students engaged.

We also cover accountability and logistics. The ballot language restricts funds to the stated projects, bond payments route directly via the state, construction is staged to avoid classroom disruption, and local contractors get priority where possible. Businesses scout communities by their school investment records, so passing this matters for economic growth and property values as much as it does for students and teachers.

If you care about kids, arts, safety, and Sikeston’s momentum, your voice matters. Mark April 7 on your calendar, register if you haven’t, grab a yard sign, and ask for a school tour if you want to see the need up close. Subscribe, share this with a neighbor who votes, and leave a quick review—then tell us: are you a yes on the no-tax bond, and why?

👉 Subscribe, rate, and share The Doghouse — your home for Sikeston Bulldogs and everything Sikeston.

🎧 Listen: Apple | Spotify | Amazon Music | Buzzsprout | iHeartRadio

🌐 Visit: thedoghouse.buzzsprout.com

📱 Follow: Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube 

✉️ Contact: doghouse.sikeston@gmail.com

Transcript

Welcome, Shoutouts, And Sponsors

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Alright, Bulldog Nation, it's time to get in the dog house. This is where Sykes and Pride live, where we tell the stories that make this town special. From the legends of the past to the faces shaping our future. Whether it's basketball, community, or just that good old Bulldog grit, we've got you covered. You're listening to the Dog House, the voice of Sykes. What is up, Bulldog Nation? Coming back to you for episode 55, season two, episode 14 of season two. And Mike and I are here on a beautiful sunny day on a Saturday morning. Getting a little melting going on. A lot of melting, fortunately.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

It's uh got some warm, a little warmer temperatures yesterday. I think it's gonna cool off a little bit, but not tonight.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

It's supposed to cool off tonight, but I think by tomorrow afternoon it's supposed to be up around 50.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Yeah, and it's supposed to be in the 50s and 60s all the next week.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

So I would guess by if we get if we get a little rain, there'll probably be some piles of snow gone, but I mean here, but it'll be gone.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Yeah, yeah, and we've got a big pile of snow in our front yard. We do too. We do for hopefully plowed the driveway. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So hopefully that'll get gone here pretty quick. But things are basically back to normal with a little snow left, but we're glad to be here and thank you for listening. I always want to give a shout out to all of our listeners. Thank you for taking an interest in what we do and listening and watching our clips and reading our social media posts and all that stuff. We are up to Micah, we're consistently hitting over 30,000 views a month on Facebook. So yeah, yeah. So thank you very much. We're our podcast numbers continue to grow. Thank you for listening. Thank you for liking, sharing, commenting on things, and uh we plan to keep on bringing uh content that you like and enjoy. You are My Gahis. I'm Matt Tanner, and we again we want to give a shout out to our partners, Mercy Phoenix and Greengrass guys. Without them, most of this would be impossible. Yeah, yeah. We're very thankful that that they're part of our team and part of what we do. Mercy Phoenix, EMT, EMS, they're a healthcare staffing solution. They provide, again, we talk about this all the time, different ways to provide healthcare staffing for hospitals, nursing homes, ambulance districts, I think is what they're called, ambulance services, and they were able to meet all those and you know, like emt's are being used for like in-home health too.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yes. I mean, like, because I think I think they go and sometimes do uh like vitals and different stuff like that. For like when you people that can't get out that have to do telehealth or something, I think they go together, you know. I don't know if they do that or not.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

I don't know that they do, but I know specifically what you're talking about. That's right. That's right. And so, yeah, there's there's a lot of options. I know Jody's on the on top of those. If it's something that you're interested in that can help your business, please reach out to Jody, mercyphoenix.com, reach out to him on Facebook. Again, you can get a hold of Micah and me. We can get you in touch with him. He's easy to find. He's not he's not hiding. Certainly, he wants to do business. And uh Jody's a big part of our bigger part of who we are, and we appreciate him and his team and his son Tucker, who's involved with him. And Tucker is also our uh IT. He's our chief IT. He's helped me.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

He's got us going on YouTube.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

He did, he did. I I I was struggling to know exactly what to do. I could sort of get him loaded, but he's helped me with a lot of the editing that I use, this software called Final Cut Pro, which is basically iMovie on steroids. And uh, you know, someday I may I may do like a behind the scenes deal and have Aaron or Luke film me showing how I do that. It's it's a pretty interesting process of how you edit all that and get it all together.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

I'd be interested in I don't even know.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

Yeah, yeah, and cut and cut and clip and get it. I know it's time consuming. I know that it does take a little while. The the the podcast part of getting the audio out doesn't take very long at all. I can do that within 30 minutes to an hour by the time we're done and get it loaded. I like the little shorts and the reels that you're putting out. That's that's a thing called Opus Clips. It's a paid app. I go in there literally after I get the YouTube video uploaded, I click the link, copy it into this deal on Opus Clips, hit it, and it produces all of them in 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_06 4:36

Cool.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

And then I can bulk, schedule them, and say, okay, I want this one, I want it at six o'clock on Monday night, and I can put on all four of our social media Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and oh, YouTube. It'll load the clips to YouTube as well. So it it's really slick the whole process, and and uh I'll do behind the scenes of that. I it's a pretty cool uh process. Also, shout out to Greengrass guys talking to D Bizzle. I got a letter from them. They are they have transitioned out of the nursery business. It's still going to go on. They've sold that. He sent a letter. I don't guess I'm speaking out of school. I do know that D bought a new location as well, a new building, and so he was telling me about all that. Again, I don't think I'm speaking out of school because he He sent I he got a letter, and it and it was a it was a a letter to all you know his customers saying, Hey, continue to do business with these folks. I can't remember their names, but they are they're gonna continue that. This the the nursery's still gonna be top notch, get all your things there, and D and David and his team are gonna transition into solely the green grass green grass guys and their turf management. And so if that's something you're looking for, I I I have them. I've had them for a long time, and they take care of my grass here at the and here and at the bank.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

I was kind of having a discussion. Do they do they do lawn care like as far as like mowing and stuff?

SPEAKER_03 6:08

They they did. They sold that actually, I think, to the same guy that bought the nursery districts.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

That's what I was thinking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

They they did, but they they don't anymore. They're they're focused uh solely on their turf management. And again, I can get you if if that's something you're interested in, we can get you in touch with the guy that mows uh for them and and there are other people in town that mow as well. So, but anyway, I we'd be happy to do that if if you're if you need if you need those services. But just know that Dee and David are still part of our community and they are huge supporters. Their family is a legacy in our town, starting you know, with Mr. Bizzle, which is David's dad, Dee's grandfather, and they are just an iconic family, and and we're very proud to have them here in our town. Give some shout-outs again, like always. Shout out to Luke. He's he's up and at him this morning. He's he's got our uh we don't have it on right now. We'll have it on during when our guests are here with our guest names and our logo and all that stuff, and Luke does that for us. Shout out to Aaron, she's sitting upstairs. She she has to get up a little earlier than sometimes she anticipates. And Mike and I try to get this part done so we can we're not leaving Aaron to entertain our guests until we get done with this.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Yeah. Sometimes I get busy in the morning and kind of. What happens? It happens. I got here a pretty good time today.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

You did. You did. Sometimes we can there's a we're gonna try to get to the CEMO game today, and so we'll try to get this done this morning, and I can get it, get it edited and get the the broadcast or the uh podcast audio out, and I'll do the video and stuff tomorrow before the Super Bowl and all that. So shout out to Justin, our chief counsel, our legal counsel, as we say, our general counsel, excuse me. It's

Behind The Scenes: Editing And Social Strategy

SPEAKER_03 7:50

trying to remember the name. Shout out to Deege and Brian, uh Derek James, yeah, Mr. Williams. Exactly. All the above for the stats and all those things. And shout out to Tyler Anderson for the uh sign on the wall. Guess that's not swag, really, but I mean it's our cool swag. We're gonna keep it with us. Uh the doghouse logo and uh twisted arrow woodworking. And uh Tyler is the uh he's the man when it comes to that. Continue to uh like, share, and follow the doghouse on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Micah, you got some shout-outs?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

I'm trying to think. I don't know. I I appreciate our last week's guess. I thought that was very informative. That was great.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Uh uh hopefully you're they made the the the clips I had from that, man. They were so good. I I hope everyone got to watch that or listen to that, man. 988 is important. It is.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

What was the uh Ask a Friend? Ask a Friend, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

It's an app you can download. Or no, I mean let me make sure that's right. I think that's what it's called. Because I downloaded it. Yeah, no, I'm sorry. A friend asks is what it's called. A friend asks. Download it, it'll help you, God forbid, that you're in that situation, but you want to be there for somebody that if they're if they're encountering a situation like that, you want you want to be able to help them.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Do you want to kind of shout out to my wife? Let me I know we we got a lot going on at the house, and yeah, she lets me come and do this on Saturdays. I mean, yeah, I've got things planned all day. Yeah. Shout out to Micah. I don't get to go to the basketball game.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

He's got a grandbaby with him.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

I got a grandbaby, and then like, and then my nephew's supposed to come over and help me. Shout out to Seth. I don't know what he probably he'll probably never hear this, but he he he helps me out a lot, man. He he he does. He's gonna help me change out some outlets and switch covers covers and just trying to do little details and eventually, hopefully, some trim eventually, not today, but it may take a little while to get done. Right, right. But I do appreciate my family in general.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

Absolutely, same. So do I. And you can catch our podcasts on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Music, iHeartRadio, as well as our Buzz Sprout on our website, the doghouse.bussprout.com, and there's an embedded player on there that you can listen via that as well, along with a whole host of other podcast mediums that you can that you can listen to. Those are the main ones. And you can reach us if you need want to send us an email at doghouse.sykston at gmail.com and uh or you can reach out to us to Mike and I on our personal website or excuse me, personal Facebook pages or Instagram, or you can send us a message or a DM on Facebook or Instagram with our with the doghouse pages. Also, if you're interested in being a partner with us, we would love to talk to you. Give us a call. We feel like that we offer quite a bit of exposure. And again, just the 30,000 Facebook views, not counting anything else. Uh, we're probably close to 50,000 views a month with all of our social media content. And so something that we could certainly sit down and talk about.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

If you haven't liked our Facebook page, go like it. Please like our yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

We're almost a 900. Almost a 900. I'd love to get to a thousand. Yep. Thank you for saying so, Micah. Like our Facebook page, like our Instagram page, TikTok, all those things. So I'm an old man. I don't know. I I know, I know. Facebook is by far the our our our most likes and follows or whatever. So, yeah, that's where probably people our age go, there's no no doubt. But again, if you're interested in partnering with us, reach out to us and we'd love to sit down and talk to you about it. Also, we still have swag available. We have t-shirts right now, and uh hopefully some other things to come. We're working on that right now. So if you're interested, reach out to us. And without further ado, Micah, let's talk about the bull the week that was Bulldog basketball. Man, Tell of Two Cities almost. You know, it really was. The the dogs went into Dexter, and in my mind Well, that game was just like the one we played at Seamo Cover. It was, it was. I anticipate the I thought we would win. And of course, I know I'm a homer and I and and I get all that, but I thought we would beat them by a bigger margin. I thought our kids would be a little bit I don't know, motivated's not necessarily the right word. I thought they would want to up for the game. Yeah, up. There we go. A little more hype for the game. Dexter doesn't move a lot of needles for Sykston as far as you know, like it's not a big rivalry or things like that. And frankly, Dexter's a darn good team. I mean, let's just be for real. They're a good team. They're big, they're physical. That's a palvado

Community Partners And Local Legacy

SPEAKER_03 12:40

kid, he can play. I think he's a senior. That Geatly, heck, he hit six threes against us. He had 18, at least 18, because he hit six threes. And then that Nichols kid, who's six three, he's a freshman. Man, he can put it on the floor and get to the hole.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

I think Turnbow was like extra motivated to be inside in the next day.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Yeah, that's right. Congrats, hey, shout out to him.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

Coach Jamerson, when he was on a few weeks ago, talked highly about him. I'm sure he's a very nice young man. I don't know him personally.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

He had a good game.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

He had a great game. He played well. Then that I Ibrahim, Ibrahim, Ibrahim, I think. Whatever it is. He's a big kid, 6'3, 6'4, takes up a lot of space, rebounded well. They, man, they're super well coached. Obviously, Coach Allen knows what the heck he's doing. And at the end of the day, Coach Allen knows how to play us. He's, I mean, he schemes so good, and he makes it so difficult to play against. And we were in their defense, or not in their defense, because of Dexter playing us so well. We weren't hitting shots. I mean, they weren't standing there just going to give us the game.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

They were pretty well, they weren't running back and getting in a in a zone exactly either all the time.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

No, their their press is a little bit different than ours. I th in my opinion, I think it's just to slow the tempo down. You know, because they run like a one-two-two and they don't trap real hard out of it. Now they'll get a turnover here and there, but their their mission, so to speak, is not to get a I mean, they would like to, but in my opinion, I maybe, and I'm not Coach Allen, I don't know, but it just in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

I think it is the slowest down.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

Yeah, because the way they approach it.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

I'll be honest with you, they're not the team that they were probably four or five years ago where they did walk it up. Right.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

You know, no, they'll they'll get out and go a little bit. They've got some good athletes, man. That Turbo and that Ibrahim or Ibrahim, whatever Ibrahim, whatever his name is, they can play, man. This a Paul Vado, the Nichols kid, I mean, yeah, they can play. The J game was very similar to I mean, like it was it was a carbon copy. Close the whole way, and Sykston pulled out and turned up with some defense. And late in the third and the fourth quarter, I don't know if we got a rush of energy or just urgency. Or a sense of urgency. And I said it last night on the broadcast. Mark Well basically just decided they weren't gonna get the ball up the floor, and he was all over the place. And about five or six straight possessions, he got it. Got a still layup, still lay up, still lay up a three. Next thing you know, you look up and we're like, holy crap, we're up like twelve. And when we were down five, I think, going in the fourth. I I think we were down just a little bit, and he turned it on with a flip of a switch, and he went crazy. And next thing you know, we win by double digits. I mean, I think we went up by 15 once, I think.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

I think it was 12. I think we did we win by 12 or something.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

Yeah, yeah. 675. No, third. I think it was like 6754, I think. Yeah. So it was a good win. It was a CMO conference win. We won 37, well, counting last night, 37 consecutive.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Was Jackson the last team to beat us? Like the end of couple years ago. 2024, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

It was up there, so yeah. Yeah, we've probably been the end of 24.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

I remember we went and watched uh double tech afterwards at I think is the American Legion Eagles or something. Oh, that's exactly right. That's exactly where it was. That's right. That's right. But we had to start early because of the snow.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Yeah, like it was a snow. Yep, that's right. That's exactly right. That's been two years ago. That's right. That's correct. I think that's the last time they beat us up there. And it was close. And I wasn't that the game where PJ got hurt. I think he hurt his ankle that game. Yes. I think PJ twisted his ankle and was out.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Because he ended up having he played against Father Totem. I think we played them after that.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

I think that may be right.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

That that was like the last game of the season. Father Totin was. Yes. Or a regular season. Right. Right. And I think he kind of hurt his ankle going into districts and he did.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

Oh yeah. He did. But it was so it's 37 straight SEMO conference games. And then it's again, it was a good win over a good team in Dexter. And then let me let me just say this real quick. People are like, well, how do we beat Puxico 40? And they can't beat Puxico. It's a it's matchups. It's a hundred percent, a million percent, it's matchups. They match up better somehow, some way. They do things differently than us, and we just match up different against them. And besides all that, again, I'm not knocking Dexter. We just haven't they haven't been on our radar of somebody to really get hyped up for. Puxico, that's a huge game to them every year. And and and so it's starting to become a rivalry. Now, frankly, I I don't I don't know, and I'm not knocking Puxico. I don't know what they're gonna have after this year. Maybe they're gonna be terrific still. I don't know, but you know, they're they're a small school, so they're gonna tend to go up and down more. Where you know, fortunately for Sykston, we've been well actually I I should say I talked about this the other night with some people outside. The level of winning that we have going on right now is not common. No. And and I'm saying this with all due respect. I mean, Charleston had years of some dominant teams, and New Madrid had, you know, they would have a couple years here, and then you know, two or three with you know with Jadis and BJ, and then when Willie Jemerson was there, and then even before that with Tipler and those guys, and they won some state titles. But the the the length of Holofield's tenure here and the winning and the the percentage of winning is just not the ordinary. It's just not the norm. And so we we as fans need to understand that the the le this level is unprecedented and the longevity of it is what makes it more impressive. It's not the fact that we win 20 games, it's the fact that we've won, we've I think we average a 21 season every year of his tenure. Uh now, not every year has been 20 years, because uh the year we won district in what 21 like Leroy senior year, we were 12 and 9. That was a weird year. A COVID. It was short.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Sound like 21 games.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

I mean, not even normal 30, and so I mean you you know it it's a it was just a weird dynamic. But the the history of winning is is just ridiculous. So I and we I just want all of us fans to keep that in mind. Now let's uh let's shift to Popper Bluff's game. I was not surprised in the outcome. I will have to say the margin of victory surprised me. 111 to 15.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Evidently they hadn't played in like two weeks.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

They had not played in two weeks, and Andon and I talked about that on the air. You could tell there was a lot of rust,

Bulldog Basketball Recap And Streaks

SPEAKER_03 20:31

but we came out. I mean, it was we scored 15 points before they scored. It was 15 to 2. And frankly, it was over. Yeah, it was it was over. We scored 34 in the first time.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

I don't think they had tied their shoes yet.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

I mean Will hit three threes. He had 11 points in the well, I know in the first half, at least the first quarter.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

And talking about threes, we were 15 of 26.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

What is that what the article said?

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Fifteen of 26.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

We were 42 of 64 from the field. Overall. Holy cow.

SPEAKER_03 21:17

I I I did not That's approaching almost 60%, ain't it? Uh, if we if we shoot like that, we're going to be tough to beat. I see Kobe had 27. Speaking of Kobe. Thousand points. Thousands of points. I had no idea. I mean, he's played all year, but this is his first year really starting. Right. Actually, Andon and I talked about that too. Andon mentioned that. Yeah. I mean, he's he played a little bit as a freshman. He got some key minutes actually down the stretch.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

And actually, in that game against helped beat Kate.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

Yeah. He had some big minutes. And then, you know, he played more as a sophomore, and then as, you know, played a ton last year. I I I had no idea it was close to a thousand. Because Andon and I both remarked, we're like, why is he in in the middle?

SPEAKER_01 22:04

I was just thinking about it, and I was like, and then when I seen the bench get up, I was like, he's hit some kind of record. And I was like, I bet he's hit a thousand.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

Yep. And at literally about that time, I we were sitting there going, Why is he in there? Aaron, of course, she was at the ballgame. She texted me. She goes, Hey, he's two points away. About that time I got the text and they were all jumping around. So I was like, That's it. That's it. Coach, I knew he wasn't leaving him in there for something silly, but with two points, he I'm sure they understood.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

And we wanted to I mean great that it happened. Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. I mean our next game is a cake.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Correct. Yeah. That was good for him to get that, and he evidently needed all he was twenty-seven away. He needed all twenty-seven. So because he finished with twenty-seven last night, is what the article said. Let's read. Let's get some stats here. 42 of 60. They didn't have a box score.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Let's say they don't have a box score, but I did at the bottom of the book.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Sean Cole had 17. Heck, he was three for three behind the arc. Yeah, two rebounds, two assists. Oh Jahara came out and absolutely owned the boards for the first quarter, which helped us get just absolutely salted away.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

We're just round. I mean, like just like everybody the points.

SPEAKER_03 23:33

Mark Will had 11 points. Where do you yeah, I was looking for that. Yeah, Ben had Ben had 15 shootings. Eight assists, five steals, and one rebound. Some of those assists were ridiculous. The one where he went drove baseline and threw an underhand all the way to Will, I think, in the corner and knocked it down. I was like, whoa. Then he and Kobe kind of knew what was going on. Kobe went, got around his guy, and Ben cut baseline and kicked it to him for a reverse layup. Just so heady. I mean, just stuff you your seniors really starting to come in their own, and there's not a whole lot of superlives we can say about it.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

They look like they're having fun too. I mean, like I I will say that's what I the hallmark of Coach Hollowfield's team is they always seem to enjoy each other and have fun. I I'll tell you why.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

The the the style that they play, kids absolutely love it. Kids and and listen, it's not for everybody. This is Coach Hollyfield's style. So and it takes a lot of commitment, a lot of energy from Coach Hollyfield and the coaching staff to to train their kids this way, but their natural instinct is to want to walk the ball up the floor, right? Get a catch a breather. These kids absolutely love the high pace or the fast pace, high energy, share the ball. I mean, we had kids with 15, 27, 16, 13.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

And that may be different next next week.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. But they're but but they all know with the number of possessions they get, they're going to get the ball. They're going to be able to score. And by playing up tempo defense, frankly. They're trapping, they're getting a lot of layups.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

And it's not even really like leak outs. It's just they push the ball up the floor. I mean, like sometimes you'll get somebody snowbirding or kind of just getting back. But I mean, like, it most of ours Texton's is a fast break. Just you know, like it's not. I mean, you might see a long court pass, but it's not usually it's through a group of people to get. I mean, right.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

And they're his his system is designed on that. He they and you can probably hear him yelling it if you're anywhere near the bench or in the gym. He's yelling secondary, secondary, secondary. And it's sort of what's called continuity offense. Is what you do is you it it predicates pushing the ball up the floor. And he's ran this forever. He ran this, he told me, with Lontez McClinton back in the late 90s, early 2000s, when Coach got here. Secondary break means getting your big men out on the floor. That's why Trace was so good at it. He ran the floor like crazy. That's why JT was an all-stater. That's why Michael Porter was an all-stater. That's why his post guys tend to be all-staters, is because they run the floor and they get a lot of layups. But Dontrez, I mean, Don Trez was score from anywhere. Yes, he can. But he was, he you would, that's why you would see him. He he would rebound, they kick the ball off the floor. What they're predicating is you get a quick outlet to a guard. The other guard has to get to the ball side, whether it's left or right. They have to sprint ahead and get to the corner. And what you're doing is you get the ball up the floor, you got your big that doesn't rebound, sprint the floor, and he runs block to the block on the same ball side. They kick it in the corner, and you and what you're doing is stretching the defense. And a lot of times you end up having a three-on-two because the defense doesn't get back, or sometimes a three-on-one. But what you have to do is make the defense commit. If they stay in there and defend the post, what are you going to do? You're going to kick it to a three. Either Kobe, you know, if Kobe's pushing up the floor and Will or Ben's in the corner, kick it to them, they're going to shoot a wide open three. Or sometimes you can dribble in, make the defender choose. If he takes the ball, you kick it to the post for a layup. Or if it's three-on-three, what you end up doing is spin that ball on the post, and then the two guards on that side split, which means say it's Ben and Kobe, and Ben's in the corner, Kobe kicks it to Ben, and then you got Jaharis on the block, so it's a triangle. So what happens? Ben spins in there to Jaharis. Kobe comes down and sets a screen, and Ben goes this way, and then Kobe basically backfields where Ben was, and the defenders get confused. And if Jaharis can't get it, he kicks it back out. They got a three. So it's lightning speed offense. And if they if they stifle it, you got your other teammates coming down. You try to reverse a basketball and get the the uh set up a play. You do. Then he'll get into a set play, but you try to get the defense moving side to side, and they can they have some set plays right out of secondary. If you reverse that, a lot of times that opposite guard will come into that high post and screen the off guard, and they'll come around, you know, try to hit an elbow jumper or again get the defense off there. You've got a jillion things out of it. That just gets your team moving.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

It's just fast-paced. Right. I mean, like the the the tempo that they play that at is just unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

And it absolutely wears other teams down. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

And you can see like you watch you watch the JV game versus they're doing the same things, but you can see that sometimes they're not quite at that speed. Right. I mean, they're they're that's why they're they're learning it.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Correct. That's correct. I mean and our JV is undefeated, man. I'm I like I I keep saying the cover is not bare.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

And here the truth is is our sophomores, we're we've got three of them that don't even play for JV. I mean, like we could they played a little bit in the beginning of the year. I mean, yeah, but when Coach saying that there was gonna be minutes on varsity, they're playing varsity.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

Yeah. Well, because you get six quarters a night, and so you you know, if if we need if you need the minutes on varsity, you don't want them taking up all their time on JV. But we've had our other JV kids step up. I mean, we've had we've got several freshmen that play now on J V, some sophomores. Tatum Blissett's really starting to flourish on JV. He's uh he comes in, man, he can just he's a weapon. He can shoot. He is a weapon. And so last night I thought we all played terrific. Marquell, Ben, Will. Will had a career night. I'm not sure what he finished with, but he had a great night, man. It was really good to see him get going. Not that he's struggling.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

I I've all I mean, like I remember going over into Tennessee and stuff early, like when he was he was coming up, I think he was coming out of eighth grade, and that kid can shoot. He can just flat shoot it, and it's good to see him.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

He never takes bad shots, he doesn't rush. All the shots look like they're going in. They just haven't, they just haven't fallen. And he's and I know he does, he shoots with confidence, I know he's working at it, and it's good to see him start going, and like we always say, water finds level, right? And so if if he's off for a while, it means he's gonna be hot. And so I've seen him five, six in a row. Exactly. And he hit three in a row last night. So it's great to see him getting on track. Man, I'm so proud of Ben. They're Ben's probably peeking at the right time. He is. I mean, like he just battled that ankle that I know had him just just frustrated. Well yeah, right. And he hurt, and you know, he couldn't play, and I know that you know that's he loves basketball, and I know he I know he was it was bothering him, and now that he's he's a hundred percent or probably ninety-five or better.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

And some of the point of his life, like he went through a tragedy when he should be having the most fun of his life. He did. I mean he did. I mean, I say tragedy, but I mean he went through a rough patch.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

I mean, just for him as a kid at that age, that's a big deal. And he he battled through it and he's having a great year. He's really starting to come on, man. He's playing with so much confidence. He's strong, he's tough, he's always been that physical, gritty, and uh he's he's that kid that'll get in there and do some dirty not dirty and a dirty play, but the dirty work. He'll dive on balls. He's he I mean he stripped Dallas Williams.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

How many times have we watched him do that this year? Like come in and strip somebody just Jillian, seems like. I mean, like at least once a game.

SPEAKER_03 31:39

Right. He he's got that play where they're on a break and he runs in front of them real fast. And it seemed like he stripped Dallas Williams like that ten times last night.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

It probably wasn't ten, but that one was there was one on it they were over by Sykes' bench and they were trying to go, and he came in. I don't I didn't even know there was room for him to run.

SPEAKER_03 31:57

Oh, and he took that right out of the room. Oh, he just oh, he went on the sideline and stripped it and went the other way.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Yeah. Sure did.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

Yeah, sure did. I was like, yeah. I know that kid wasn't even thinking anybody was gonna be coming through there. No, nope, there was barely enough room to get through there. Yeah, and he did it. But it was it's a good win, it's a homecoming win. Again, 37 in a row for the dogs and and conference sets up a big matchup potentially with district should be Well, and they're a district, Popper Bluff's a district opponent, but this sets up a big matchup for Jackson to win the conference, assuming both of us are undefeated at that time. The dogs have coming up. We have Cape next Friday up there. It's always a tough place to play, man. Cape's gonna be tough to play up there. It's just it's just gonna be that.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

We're gonna feel like we've been in there forever the next month.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

Yes, and that's where districts are at Cape Central. It beats driving to Hillsborough and Festus, but it's a tough place to play. It's just a tough place, you know, tough place. And then we have a pickup game. I say pickup, a game that we picked up next Saturday playing Scott City. They're a good team. They beat a good chaffy team last night by 25 or 30.

SPEAKER_06 33:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:04

And so we're gonna have to go in there and play well on Valentine's Day. And then we finish on the case.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Is that a three o'clock start?

SPEAKER_03 33:11

Yeah, I we were looking for that last night during the game and and I couldn't find it. Just watch for your social media, Sykes and Athletic.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Is that a JV and varsity or diversity?

SPEAKER_03 33:20

It may be, yes, it's at least those, and it may be a freshman game too.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:24

And I'm not sure about next Friday if that's a freshman game as well. I do know it's JV and varsity at least. And go up there, watch a game, go on Cape and eat you a good cloud's dinner. Exactly. Exactly. And then the final week of the season coming up, two weeks, would be senior night on Tuesday night against New Madrid at home, and then we finish up the regular season at Jackson. So we got four games remaining, and then we're rolling

Fast-Paced System And Player Development

SPEAKER_03 33:51

right into district play. So hold on to your hats because we're gonna come to finish with a flurry.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

So probably class one through three seedings for district will probably come out. Probably coming out here pretty quick.

SPEAKER_03 34:05

Yeah, I would say so. And then we'll probably follow the week, like either next week, probably or things. Yes. Yes. I would say that probably the final week of the season, they'll have them seated by then. Probably either this week. It may be this coming week when they'll seed it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

And I Well I haven't seen one through three come through yet.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

So like and they usually were about a week behind them. I I think we're the clear one seed, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

But I but we still gotta play Kate, but I mean, like. I mean, right but I can't see them even if they beat us. Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:38

They would have a case for somebody else, but I think that yeah, I I think we're the clear one seed right now. I know West Plains, I keep hearing, man, their their record isn't just outstanding, but man, they play some I mean they play Logan Rogersville, who is loaded this year. That kid is going to Indiana. They're they play a lot of really good teams over that way. So I know they're they're a team that could be reckoned with. I know Festus has got a good record, so there's there's a lot of good things going on. So anyway, we'll we'll keep everybody up to date on that and all the all the toings and goings with class five district one. And with that, Micah, let's take a quick break and ready for our guests and come back for our guest. We appreciate you hanging out with us on this uh beautiful Saturday. And again, uh just stay with us in just a second. We'll be right back with our guests this week, which is Aaron Boyce and Liz Littleton, and they're gonna talk about our upcoming no-tax bond issue. Hey, thanks for sticking with us through the break. And we're back with our guest. And so, Micah, without further ado, I'm gonna introduce our guest. How about that? Sounds good. Okay. Sykston, this is one of those conversations that affects everybody. Whether you've got kids in the district right now, have had kids that came through, or you just care about where our community is headed, this matters. Today we've got Aaron Boyce and Liz Littleton, co-chairs of Better Schools, Better Communities. They're here to talk about the April 7th bond vote, and they'll break it down in plain language. This is a no-tax increase proposal. It includes projects like an addition at Wing Elementary, an addition at Lee Hunter Elementary, and a new performing arts classroom at the high school. No politics, no noise, just the facts, the plan, and what it means for our kids and for Sykston. Aaron, Liz, welcome to the doghouse. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. It is our pleasure. And again, thank you all for taking time out of your day on a Saturday to come do this and get some info out for our folks. And it's uh gonna be a big push for the next couple months. It is, it is. You're just kind of starting that there without further ado.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

It'll be April before you know it.

SPEAKER_03 36:53

Oh my gosh, it's gonna be March in two weeks. I mean, it's just we were just talking about it earlier. Heck, the basketball season, we got four games left.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Well, you know February is like a perfect month this year because you know it starts on a Sunday, ends on a Saturday for four weeks to the day.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

Ah, see, I didn't look at it. I don't look at it nearly that close. Thanks for thanks for making me feel like an idiot. I appreciate it. You do that all right. That's what he's here for. It is. That's my brother-in-law. That's what he's supposed to do. He's supposed to make me feel feeling.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

I wasn't meaning to make you feel bad. I'm just kidding. Or inadequate. I mean, good, good. Inadequate.

SPEAKER_03 38:06

Boy, here we go. Gloves, keep the gloves up. All right. You do you guys we can start with some questions, or do you guys have how do you want to do this? You you got a presentation you want to, or not a presentation? Well, how do you how do you want to work this?

SPEAKER_05 38:20

Well, just I'd like to just introduce ourselves at that point. Please, absolutely. Liz, go ahead, ladies first.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

My name is Liz Littleton, and like Matt said, I'm a co-chair for Better Schools, Better Communities. And I am here in the district. I live in the district, I work in the district, and I have a son that will soon go through the district.

SPEAKER_05 38:40

Yep, my name is Aaron Boyce. I am the other co-chair of Better Schools, Better Communities. I too live and work in the school district. I currently have two boys that are sophomores at Sykston High, an older one that graduated in 2020. I went through the school system, as did my mom and dad and sister and several other relatives. It means the world to me. Anything that I can do to help better the school district, happy to do it and eager to explain our part today. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

Yep. And Aaron, let me give him a shout out. He is a former school board member as well. He is. He's he's he's been in the trenches with us.

SPEAKER_05 39:20

Yeah, we went through COVID together, Matt.

SPEAKER_03 39:22

Oh that was uh I've tried to have all that like removed from my brain.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

I was thinking you were, I couldn't remember if you were on the school board.

SPEAKER_05 39:29

Yeah, I was on there from 2017 to 2023, and at times it felt like about a 20-year term.

SPEAKER_04 39:38

Six years looked like 50. Yeah. But for sure. Loved every minute of it.

SPEAKER_05 39:43

It was a privilege and an honor to have been elected to serve the community. And I know you're still on it. What are you at 12, 13? I'm at 11.

SPEAKER_03 39:52

I got one more year. I think next April will probably do it for me.

SPEAKER_05 39:56

Hats off to you.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

That's a that's a commitment. I appreciate that. Actually, I have a friend of mine that works at our bank in Columbia, and he was on the Ashland School Board, which is just south of Columbia, for 24 years. Wow. Whoa. I think they're gonna have to name the district after something. That's amazing. Central office or something after him.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

Man, he should got a retirement check.

SPEAKER_03 40:19

Aaron and I get the cash, the same retirement check, the same check we currently get, or I currently get from being on the board. I'm gonna give you a raise. Yeah, appreciate that. Big fat zero.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

Ten times what you got left.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

I appreciate that. I appreciate that. So tell us about tell us what the bond issue about, tell a like what first off, I guess explain to us about the no tax part of it.

unknown 40:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

You want to go ahead?

SPEAKER_05 40:41

Sure. So so the no tax part of it is is a big part of this, obviously. Just to give you a little bit of background. The the no tax bond can be done through good stewardship of district money. And that's what the existing school board, school boards before it have done. We've passed bond issues in the past, some tax, some no tax, and we have always done a good job of paying those off in some cases early. We have the capacity right now to go out and borrow more money in the form of bonds to pay for some additions at two of our newer elementary schools, as well as build a performing arts classroom on the high school campus. Think of it like refinancing a mortgage. Yeah. You know, if you get toward the end of a mortgage and you want to do some home improvements, you can go out, refinance that, borrow a little bit of money, make some improvements, and still keep your payment the same. Right. That's it's similar to that.

SPEAKER_03 41:51

It's basically that's exactly right. Plain English, that's basically what it is. Yeah. And and also keep in mind that in the state of Missouri, the only way that capital improvements can be made at a school is either out of cash or this. Right. Correct. Because I've had at different times, not necessarily this case, but why don't we raise taxes or that that's not a school board's not an option.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

Or jurisdiction or whatever. Yeah. It's not an option for a school district to put a sales tax on or a use tax or whatever. This is the only financing mechanism that that a school has to do these sort of capital improvements. Correct. The so tell us about so the name of the entity that's involved is called Better Schools, Better Communities. Tell us about that, when it was formed, kind of how it was formed, the reasoning, kind of all those things.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

Aaron Powell Sure. To our knowledge, Better Schools, Better Communities was uh the tag the name that was tagged onto the bond issue in 2014. And we have continued to use that uh with every bond issue from there. So we had one in 2017 and one in 2020, and then now we're working towards this one here in 2026. So Better Schools, Better Communities really just encompasses what we believe and what we feel the majority of the town believes in that through our school. So we're how does Shannon say it? Shannon says it as your school goes, so goes your community. So that is something that she has really pushed and really gotten through to everybody. And I think that the majority of constituents in all towns would agree with that if you were to put it put it that way. People are looking at school districts when they're looking to move to town, and we're always looking for a way to build up this community and to in order to do that, we think that it the first step is to better our schools.

SPEAKER_03 43:42

I I agree, totally agree.

SPEAKER_05 43:44

Yeah, so Sykston has has seen its ups and downs. We're currently on an upswing. We we we have a lot of interest from other from businesses outside businesses in our community, Carlisle being the most recent big addition, I guess. If you talk to the city leaders and the Chamber of Commerce folks, they will tell you that most of the time when a business is looking at coming to your community, they want to know when was the last time a bond issue was on the ballot and when was the last time a bond issue was passed.

SPEAKER_03 44:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 44:21

Five years is really what they like to see. We're there, we're at six. 2020, as Liz mentioned, was the last one. So it's important, you know, not just for the children, that's the main reason, but it's important for the entire community and the growth that we all want to see, property values, you know, maintain. You know, it's just all one big bowl.

SPEAKER_03 44:47

Correct. Marcy, she mentioned that Marcy Lawson, I'm speaking of, the director of our chamber and economic development, mentioned that at our last town hall. When businesses are looking here, it's sort of a it's it's there's a whole big I'll say rigamorole. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 45:03

There's a whole questionnaire.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

Right, a packet process that these companies do it, and Carlisle did it as well. They'll look at a Town and and work through agencies with the government and things like that and say, You're exactly right. There's one of the questions. Do you have a hospital? Yes. When's the last time you pass a bond? And they want to know is your town invested

Upcoming Games, District Seeding, Outlook

SPEAKER_03 45:25

in your own town? Right. Correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:28

Crime rate, tax levies, yes, sales tax. It all it's all together. And being part of the school district, we want to hold up our end of the end of the day.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

Right. I mean, you know, I'm fortunate to be on the school board and I'm fortunate to be on the hospital board, and those are two of the key things that happen.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

Absolutely. When Rick Adams was on here, he talked about like when when a town loses the school. I mean, uh I know Sykes is not in that area, but he's he was like, the town ceases. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

It's devastating. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

Devastating is the exact right word for that.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

And there are other communities, and I'm I'm not going to mention them because I'm not here to not to knock anybody, but they've lost there's communities that have lost a hospital, and you see the start to spiral. It's it's it's unfortunate, and that's what we're not anywhere close to that, but we we don't want it to even allow it to move that direction.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

But I mean we take take the Cardinals. I mean, like how they've kind of got away from their ways, yeah, you know, and and and we see the downturn of it. The same thing could happen. I mean, like they were just kind of continued even in their older ways, you know. They didn't invest. They didn't invest. Bingo, yeah. I mean, and I think that's a good example of of like when we don't think forward.

SPEAKER_03 46:44

Right. And I am probably like everybody listens to this, and everybody in town, I don't like taxes as much as the next person. I but I I've always said when somebody asks me about this, I mean, I I get it. I I nobody likes them, but I can walk across the street, because I mean I happen to live across the street from Wing, but or you can get in your car and drive to Lee Hunter, or you can drive to Wing, or you can drive to the new Bulldog Hall, or you'll be able to drive to the Performing Arts Center when and put your hands on your tax money. You can walk in it, you can see it. I mean, we pay your your income taxes or you know your federal, you know. To me, that's sort of an abstract thing, right? We don't see where our money is going. But we will absolutely 100% be able to see where our money is going. Heck, you can drive by every day and take pictures of the progress if that's what you want to do, and know exactly where your money's going. That's right. So, and just like anything else, say time is now because the cost of doing this is not going to get cheaper in three years. That's right. It's only going to get more expensive, unfortunately. I had that conversation with somebody regarding banking. I remember we were well heck. My house isn't even that big, but I remember I built it, we built it in 04, and the the the basement, the driveway, the sidewalks for concrete was like 35 or 40,000. You know what it'd be now? Who? About a hundred. That's the cost.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

When you're talking about school buildings, you're talking about a lot of concrete, a lot of concrete, a whole lot more than here.

SPEAKER_03 48:13

Yeah. So now was the time to do it. Or it's not going to get cheaper.

SPEAKER_00 48:19

It's not going to get any cheaper. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:21

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 48:21

Speaking of not getting any cheaper, do we want to talk about the tax levy?

SPEAKER_05 48:25

Certainly. Sure. Yeah. Let's bring it up. Yeah. So the the the tax levy, we've had some questions that we'd like to address today. One of them is will the tax levy, if this bond issue is not passed, will the tax levy go down? That's a common question, actually.

SPEAKER_03 48:40

Micah asked them upstairs.

SPEAKER_05 48:43

Our tax levy is one of the lowest, if not the lowest, among our peers in the area at 63 cents per $100 of evaluation. And what that means is for every hundred dollars that you personally own, you get taxed 63 cents on it. In 2020, the R6 School District, the people in the R6 School District passed a bond to build Lee Hunter and Bulldog Hall. And part of that was an increase from, I believe, 21 cents. It was a significant increase. It went to 63. That bond is going to be paid off in now 14 years, I guess. 20 years. Yeah, they're 20-year bonds. The tax levy will not go down if this is not passed. The voters voted on a 63 cent, it'll stay 63 cents. All that we're asking is that the community come out April 7th and vote yes. Essentially add six more years on the back end.

SPEAKER_00 49:49

To be able to access this $11.3 million to do these improvements that we're talking about.

SPEAKER_05 49:53

And I'll let Liz, she does a very good job describing what these improvements are, but to set you up, they're additions at Wing, Lee Hunter, and then of course the performing arts classroom.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

Right. So we've got additions on Lee Hunter and on Wing, which as we've discussed, are the two newer elementary buildings, our one through four buildings. There's one kind of north of downtown and one on the south end of town, if anybody is not familiar with those. And those were built through the last couple of bond issues. So 2017 built Wing and then 2020 built Lee Hunter. They are as close to identical buildings as you can get with being built three years apart. That was by design as well. Absolutely. That was my community.

SPEAKER_03 50:37

Yeah, they were kind of a mirror image, essentially. They are one.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

Yeah, they are a mirror image. There were a couple of things that were changed with Lee Hunter. Just kind of looking back when they built Wing, there were a couple of things that they wished they would have done. And so those changes were made to Lee Hunter. And then those changes were also made to Wing. And speaking of built by design, these additions were by design as well. And so something else that we get asked a lot is why wasn't this just done in 2017 and 2020 when these bonds were passed? Well, the bond, our bond council tells us how much we can access with these bonds. And unfortunately, the funds were just not available there. As with a lot of construction, things just had to be phased out. And so this is another phase. This is phase four of the master facilities plan. And so when Wing and Lee Hunter were built, they were built with the idea of expansion in mind. What that means is the architects built the planned these buildings to be able to be added on when that time came. And that time is now. So we have nine classrooms that are going to be built onto Lee Hunter and nine classrooms that are going to be built onto Wing. Again, the space is there. They're a little bit different as far as the additions. One of them has to curve a little bit just because of the property line, but nine classrooms at both We Wing and Lee Hunter. And then with the remaining funds, those funds will be earmarked for performing arts classrooms on the high school campus. Those will classrooms will be built in this space where the old C building was. If you are a bulldog grad or if you are aware of where C building was.

SPEAKER_03 52:14

I love C building. Now I know guys like Aaron and other guys. I never did. I was on my way, you know, probably to church or something, but I never scooted out underneath the short walls. I never did that. I know Aaron probably. Aaron didn't either, I'm sure. Oh no, I never pulled any shenanigans in high school. That's true. No, we couldn't.

SPEAKER_01 52:31

I wish I'd have seen the short walls because I've heard about the short walls. I've just never.

SPEAKER_05 52:34

Yeah, so the the the I don't know why they didn't go all the way to the floor. We could go down a rabbit hole with sea building, but long story short. Well I watched it get tear teared down. Yeah, the walls did not go all the way to the floor on on the interior in the interior hall. So you could easily, if you were small enough, and I was, I was about 160 pounds in high school. I'm not anymore. But I could you could slide underneath there and allegedly people did that.

SPEAKER_03 52:59

I Aaron and I, of course, we did not. Yeah. But that was an interesting building. It was. It was it was served its purpose for sure. It did. It did. And so this new performing arts center, what will it replace?

SPEAKER_00 53:14

So it'll be performing arts classrooms right now. Just wanted to clarify that because that is something that has been sorry about that. I said that incorrect, yes. Um, that has been discussed as well. But performing arts classrooms, hopefully, with an I the idea to make it a center eventually, should those funds become available.

Guests Join: Introducing The No-Tax Bond

SPEAKER_01 53:32

Correct a performing arts center.

SPEAKER_00 53:34

Is the space there? Should funds become available through another bond issue or through a large donation or capital campaign. That is something that in the future people that the district would like to do. But for right now, we're talking about some classrooms that would support our band, orchestra, choir, drama kids. Those classrooms are currently in the band shell, which is another building that has served as purpose and is iconic, but this space is just not adequate for what it needs now.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

I mean, heck, the building. Well, we mentioned it last night. Mr. Voorhees mentioned it to me before the game started. The field house was 57 years old yesterday. Its birthday was February 9th. I saw that. Yeah, February 9th. 1969. Got him a win last night. We did.

SPEAKER_05 54:21

Big win. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:22

Yes, we did. It was quite my Mike and I had talked about this already, but yes, it was quite the win. We can certainly go down a rabbit hole there. But the band shell is even older. And so it's served its purpose. And it's been a great facility, but need the updated. We have the space, the the kids there will be spots in there, the way I understand it, that you they can perform as a group and uh either band or choir or orchestra with the thought of adding on an auditorium, hopefully at some point.

SPEAKER_05 54:57

Yeah, and and this is the same thing that Liz mentioned earlier. There's a plan in place. Yes. The funds are not up 100% there right now to get that performing arts classroom exactly where everybody wants it. Yeah. But there's a plan to do that. Right. And, you know, baby steps.

SPEAKER_03 55:14

Yeah. And I'll I'll mention this again. I I'm not trying to take take your thunder, but just, and and Aaron knows this too. It's simply we can only, it's sort of like the value of your home. We have to take the the tax base that's in sixteen, the real estate tax base, and up to that value, we can only borrow a certain percentage of that. And that's what Liz, I think you alluded, our bond counsel says, okay, based on your levy and based on the value that you have, and they'll try to project a little bit of growth because it grows a little bit each year, but because you know home values go up and things like that. But you don't want to predict a 10% growth because that's silly, right? You I mean, you don't we don't want to put ourselves in a pinch. Right. But you do project a little bit of growth, but there's only a X amount of dollars you can borrow, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

Which is how you pay it off early. Sometimes maybe you get better growth than what you're correct.

SPEAKER_03 56:05

That's exactly right. You're on the money there. So just like with your home, if it's only worth $100,000, you can't borrow $300,000 on it, right? It's right. It's it's the very same idea. We can only borrow and and and it's $11.3.3. Yep. So that's all we can spend. Right. We can't spend 12.3 or 11.4. All we can spend is 11.3.

SPEAKER_01 56:26

I'm the one in this room that never talks like that about these things, really. No, it's okay. Like so the bond council, y'all mentioned that. Where where is that?

SPEAKER_05 56:35

That is a company called Piper Sandler. Yes. I believe they're out of St. Louis. Yes. Our our bond council is lives in the Kansas City area. Okay. His name is Matt something. Matt Courtney.

SPEAKER_01 56:48

So are they the ones you buy the bonds or borrow the bonds? They sell them for us. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 56:53

They tell us, okay, here's what you can do, here's how much you can you can borrow and get this passed, and we'll sell the bonds for you to investors across the globe.

SPEAKER_01 57:04

Well, because they get a guaranteed return on their money. They do. They do.

SPEAKER_05 57:07

I mean, municipal bonds are a great investment. They're not going to make you tons of money, but they're solid.

SPEAKER_03 57:12

They're steady. Yeah. I mean, the rates on those, you know, we didn't even talk about that, but they'll probably be in the don't don't hold me to this. I'm just rough numbers, probably in the four percent range, maybe a little lower, maybe solid. Yeah. So yeah. I mean, you're not going to knock down 15% weight. That's not Nvidia, but but you don't have the risk either. That's what I was going to say. There's uh that's right. And and there's things that they do that the bondholders are man, we're going way down the rabbit hole here.

SPEAKER_01 57:39

The rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_03 57:39

Well, the Some people like it, some people won't.

SPEAKER_01 57:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:43

The school board, what we had, if you I think you were on there then when if you recall when we did the last one, we voted to allow the bond payments to come out of our money coming from the state, which means it doesn't even come to us. The payments come directly from the state on our state money. So coming out of that. So that's another thing that actually helps give us a better bond rating for the investors.

How A No-Tax Bond Works And Why Now

SPEAKER_03 58:06

Yeah, it's more of a guarantee. Right. Exactly. So they know they're going to get it. We're not going to touch it. It goes straight from the state to its rightful home. Yes. And so when those get paid off, that that's what that's for. And so there's there's a I'm not an expert in that, but there's a lot of questions. That's a great question. They they sell those and they'll put them on the open market, and people that buy bonds know where they are.

SPEAKER_01 58:31

It's okay. My mind isn't here, you know, like I'm I'm the one that doesn't really deal with this. I mean, like, I'm but I and I you're hanging out. I'm sure there's a lot of people, a lot of people that a lot of people that are listening.

SPEAKER_00 58:42

Yeah. A lot of people that are listening probably have these same questions.

SPEAKER_03 58:45

Absolutely. And they can reach out to me or I can get you in touch with Liz or Aaron, or they've they've got a Facebook page, better schools, better communities. That's right. Like, share, follow, comment, all that stuff. Ask questions on there. It's okay. I mean, just respectful stuff. I mean, it's we don't we're not going to go crazy, but if you ask a respectful question, you'll get a response.

SPEAKER_01 59:05

So just to kind of kind of bounce back. Everything that that we're voting on was probably planned four to five years ago. I mean, like at least vision. And I know there's even further out. I mean, we've kind of talked about you know, a performing arts center on top of the not this time, but in the future. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 59:27

So Matt, it it would now be a good time to kind of talk about 2014 and and what changed when that bond issue failed. So in in 2014, there was a large initiative put on the ballot. It was a $32 million bond.

SPEAKER_03 59:47

And I think it would have raised it to the current level that we're at. I think that was the to go from 21 to 63. I think even then. Was that it? I think. Yeah. I'm going well 12 years ago.

SPEAKER_05 59:59

But with that bond failing, the district had to go back and say, okay, the community rejected a large bond. We get it. Let's do things smaller. Yeah. More steps, but maybe more palatable to the public.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:18

Because the plan back then was to build one big elementary.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:21

One giant elementary school. Yes. And then we were going to do a large sports complex on the Matthews property. Yes. And I don't remember if there was another addition to the high school. But anyway, we just had to revamp. To your point, yes. There was some some additional planning that had to take place, and it's been going over the last eight or ten years.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:44

Essentially, yes, that's exactly right. It was a year before I came on the board. I was involved helping with the committee. I wasn't the co-chair. I was too. We had meetings at your at the bank. That's exactly right. And so the thought was let's build this one school. But after that got shot down, and it was it was loud and clear that that the community didn't want that. And so we had to back up and say, okay, what can we live with? And you said that. Okay. It was loud and clear, we still want neighborhood schools. And so that's essentially what the school board has had to do because the the citizens are the bosses. I mean, you can say the the board or the superintendent runs the schools, but at the end of the day, the taxpayers are the bosses, right? Absolutely. And so they said, no, we're not going to do this, but we will accept this. And so that's what we've done the past two bond issues is something smaller. And that's why we're here with coming to that and and and address why we think we want to add these on and and change from three elementaries to two.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:45

Absolutely. So what these additions would do, essentially, we would move all students from Southeast Elementary into Wing and Lee Hunter in some form or fashion. So then Southeast would no longer be an elementary school. We would be at two elementary schools. The reason this is important is when it cut what it comes down to is an equitable experience for these elementary kids. We've talked about it multiple times, but we've got new building in 2017 in Wing, new building in 2020 in Lee Hunter. With those new buildings came a great gym, a great cafeteria, cook-in kitchen in that cafeteria, state-of-the-art library, safe room, safe space, uh hardened surface FEMA room for each of those buildings. Southeast doesn't have any of those things. Southeast has Can we put a FEMA building there? We cannot put a FEMA building at Southeast. We could with our own funds. We cannot apply for a FEMA grant to assist with the construction of a hardened surface room at Southeast because it is in a floodplain. So that's another big thing with this. So this is the most cost-effective way to ensure that all of our elementary students have an equitable experience for those first through fourth grades, is really what it boils down to.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:59

And the plan initially was to what would it take to bring Southeast to similar experience, so to speak, similar amen amenities or similar things that Wing and Lee Hunter have, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:13

Trevor Burrus In order to bring Southeast up to what Wing and Lee Hunter have amenities that they have to offer. It was looked into whenever it was looked into about moving or about adding these nine classrooms onto each of these elementary schools. We did receive a tentative budget from the architects, and I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, it's somewhere around 17 million to bring this building up to the the standards of Lee Hunter and Wing.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:40

Yeah. That that's clearly uh you know way out there. Right. In order to do that, you would have to do a tax increase. Yes. You would have to. It may not be a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:49

That would not include if we did that, the full bond would be going towards raise to or towards raising Southeast to what Wing and Lee Hunter have to offer, and we would have no funds left over for performing arts classrooms at the high school, which is also something that's very important to the community. Um we've had a lot of great feedback about these performing arts classrooms and about spending some some money, some energy on these the band orchestra, drama, and choir kids.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:15

Yes, correct. My and this is not a knock. Again, I'm on the school board and I know the the effort that uh is in to maintain these buildings, but when they're 60 and 65 and 70 years old, there's only so much you can do. The technology now can't it can't handle that, and the HVAC and all the infrastructure is just not built for the same things that we have now, and that's not a knock, it's just it's real.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:41

It's like an old home. It's like a home you lived in for for 50 years, and at some point it might make sense to to move out of that home, find something a little bit newer and safer, and that's that's what we're doing.

Better Schools, Better Communities: Purpose And History

SPEAKER_05 1:04:55

Another home analogy. Okay, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:57

Yeah. I'm gonna ask a question again, too, kind of going back. Like so passing a bond issue like this, no tax right now, no increase, can prevent or help prevent another big tax increase down the road. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. That's it will. Yeah. That's I mean, that's the thought. That's what that's just my process of thinking. It will.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:22

It's just I mean, if we want to we keep circling back to these, you know, these home analogies, but it's just like if you're you're never putting any money into your home, you're letting things fall into disrepair over and over and over again, and you're not spending those funds, you know, $5,000 here, $5,000 there, spending a little money every year keep with the upkeep of your home, eventually you're gonna have to spend a huge chunk of money and that com hits the pocketbook all at once, as opposed to over the years.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:48

How many homes do you run around and see a tarp on them for years? You know what I mean? I'm like, and you know that house is going to deteriorate, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:56

We I mean the school district is plenty solvent, but as most people it it's it's not uncommon to know that school districts the budgets are tight. Absolutely, regardless.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:07

I was exactly, but isn't like a lot of times when you get money from the state or somewhere like that That's directed towards something specific. Something specific. Yeah. And and but you kind of got to be creative in the way that you are able to maintain buildings like bond. You said there was only two ways. I mean, you either have the cash or you got bond. Bond, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:32

And and and again, the school district is is has cash and we're not buying on bills or anything like that. Right. And I'm but you don't but again, it's just like your home. You don't, yeah, we've got money and savings, but you don't want to just blow right through it and have nothing. Right. Right. I mean, you have to maintain some level of liquidity to be able to just to operate a school because it I mean, with five hundred plus people and thirty, four, thirty, five hundred kids, it takes a lot of money to run it. But and and again, I'm not knocking that the the maintenance been done. They're they're safe, but they're just oh and they're outdated, and it's time to get something new. It it's okay for us to get something new.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:07

And the staff at Southeast, for the most part, feels the same. I mean, it it's an it's Their home, they love it, they're used to it, but at the same time, they realize that the future may not be in Southeast. It's in one of the other two. The other night at our town hall, a week ago Thursday, I guess. We gathered in the cafeteria, the gym, the and the auditorium. It's the same building or same room.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:34

And it's not very and it's not even really a room.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:37

No. Now, now there's still plans to use Southeast. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:41

Yes, thank you for saying that. Yeah. Please address that. Yes. Yeah. The building's not the building itself is not going away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:48

The building itself is not going away. There are multiple different ideas as to what Southeast might be repurposed for. Immediate thoughts are the special services team moving their offices into that building. They are in an in a standalone building on I believe it's a great right behind Burk. Right. So it's a standalone building where the special services team operates out of the phone.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:10

Which is a multi-level building too. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:12

It is and it's in the middle of a neighborhood. It is close to the high school campus, but that's about as much of a tie to the school as you can get it. But um so they would be talking, they would be moving, most likely moving those offices into Southeast. And then there's are some other ideal.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:29

That's a pretty good sized department, too, though.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:30

I mean, I think there's six or eight, but then you've got families. Right. People with kids that are in there. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:38

I myself have had meet have had meetings there. My son has some special needs, and he uh we've met for IEP meetings and for parents as teachers meetings in that space. And so this would affect, I mean, not just the people that are in those offices, but you're talking about multiple parents coming to that office on a daily basis, coming for meetings.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:59

So I mean, like I know it's a classroom city, but can rooms for like like OT and speech therapy and stuff like that be set up in Southeast?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:07

Sure for I mean, like like because I don't they do the actual services would not be taking place there. It would be more the administration aspect of the special services team. So the services would still take place in at the school at the schools. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:21

But I didn't know if there were like I mean, sometimes that takes special equipment, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:25

Um and that might be something, you know, not that special equipment is something that sometimes the district has to purchase. Sometimes the district um receives for a grant, but sometimes that special equipment isn't need needed on a year-to-year basis. It may even be um something to where some storage could happen there as well for to go along with the special services team.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:45

I'm sure they got look well and and a lot of that's made by administration.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:49

There is, and there's some there's some thoughts, and again, don't don't hold me to this, but there's some the school has an autism center that's off off campus, and the thought is okay, we could bring the autism center back on the phone. Okay. That is a that is a huge loading community. And there there's a waiting list, and so if anytime we can expand that, you know, there would be space there, and which then would open up space at kindergarten. Kind of all all plays hand in hand.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:20

So yes, there is a lot of that ties to state funding. Correct. Yeah, right. But yeah, you're spot on. Those are those are three or four initial ideas and concepts for Southeast.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:31

Right. Right. So no, it will not go unused. It will be a centralized service type. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:39

I mean, like it's kind of like the alternative school. I mean, like you mean like that was uh elementary school. South elementary.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:45

How much more successful that's been for the district?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:47

Oh yeah. Oh gosh, it has well we could go down a rabbit hole with that. But yes, the the great programs. I was just gonna say Aaron and I know especially well as as others, it's it sort of gets a bad eye, a rap from some people, but it's a it's a it's a shining star in our district.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:04

I'm gonna tell you what it does for kids and families and you know how many kids go through there that wouldn't get an education? Yes, right. A hundred or more a year.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:14

And not only that, if you put them in in a not all of them, but like they're disruptive to the uh that's where some of it is that it is some some kids with some behavior issues, but it's others that just say, you know what, I I need to be able to work. Right, yeah. And they have a flexible schedule.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:33

It is truly alternative in the way

Projects Overview: Wing, Lee Hunter, Arts Classrooms

SPEAKER_00 1:11:35

in in the truest sense of the word. It is alternative for a multitude of different reasons. Yeah, it's not just the behavior.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:42

Right. I I get that because I I realize that you know, like you there's actually Well you work there, yeah. Yeah, yeah, there's two different buildings. I mean, like right. You got the ones that can't, but then you have the building where they're at. Those are kids that are just not going to flourish in a regular school setting.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:01

A lot of those settings choose to be there, they apply to be in that program because it just works out best for them for their life and then for their families.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:08

They'll work at uh at Allen Wire, next steps, and then they'll go to school at at New Horizon in the afternoon or next morning or whatever. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:16

But yeah, it's it's it and that and so something like that can be made of this school. It's not falling down, there's nothing wrong with it, but there they're just there can be other needs that we can use that for. And the the expansion to wing and Lee Hunter is, you know, I I think it's terrific and will accommodate all that too.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:33

And I I mean, I guess, you know, there's been talk of making that like grade like one first and second, and then third and fourth. Is that correct? But that's not set in stone, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:44

That is not set in stone, and we want to be very clear that that is not tied to this bond issue. Thank you for bringing that up. The bond issue, the what the public is going to be voting on is simply that the district is going to be able to use this one or $11.3 million for these construction projects. So we are fortunate to have a very dedicated board of education. And ultimately, that decision as far as the how those buildings will be used, whether it be two one-through-fours or whether we would go to grade level centers, would be up to our board of education, which we have elected and we trust that they will make the right decision for the community. And that decision is not going to be made without community feedback. We have requested community feedback on the bond issue, and we have gotten some great community feedback as far as the bond issue and these construction projects. And once this is hopefully passed on April 7th of this year, then the Board of Education in the district will once again go to the community asking for feedback regarding grade level centers.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:47

Yeah, Andy McGill, who will be the new superintendent of Sykes and Public Schools as of July 1, was at the town hall last Thursday and he said those very words. He said, Look, we want community input, we will get community input, no decision is made, no decision will be made without that input from the community. There'll be committees, there'll be focus groups. That is a bone of contention with some people, but as Liz said, it has nothing to do with this bond issue. Right. One it's it's either gonna be one through four or grade level, but we don't know yet what that's gonna be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:24

Nobody does. Yeah, and that's not trying to I you guys have spelled it out very well, laid it out very well. And it's not a well, we don't know what we're gonna do. We we know it can be like I think a point of contention with someone. So we once we get this passed, and hopefully, we expect it to be and want it to be, but then we will get more input. It's not a we're not asking the the community to ratify something that you know that we we've already set in place, and so that that's where we we want the more input. Are there more town halls upcoming with our with so we've had two so far. We had two.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:02

We had one in November and one a couple weeks ago. Okay. Liz and I are scheduled to meet with four or five civic groups. Yeah. Uh Lions Club. Lions Club. Where did it be? Uh a the ministerial alliance.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:19

Maybe one more, but they've they've made their uh professional speaker tour folks right now. They've made the rounds and they've spoken with the chamber already.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:29

We've had a couple of town halls, uh, we spoke at a chamber luncheon. We spoke to the JC's.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:34

JC's? Yeah. Speaking of the JCs, yeah. I'd like to just give a shout-out to the Liz and I went out there last Tuesday and they were gracious in both their support monetarily and publicly for this bond issue. That's an amazing organization that we take. We should not take for granted. Yes, we do. They are something else, not just because they gave money to us last week, but just in general.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:59

That they're valuable to the community. We we had them on last summer right before the rodeo. We had Austin Curtis, he was a current chairman, and we had their uh perennial employee of the year, Kelly.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:11

Yes. Who's who's and Austin's best friend?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:14

That's right. She's she's a she's a peach. She's a hoop. I love I love Kelly, but the the things that they do is and the amount of time and the effort they put in. Yeah, thanks for mentioning them, Aaron. They are they are just a treasure to have and an asset and a blessing to our community. Absolutely. They also the city council are just about the whole city council was at town hall. Not I don't I don't think all of them were. You were missing one, yeah. Right. We're at the last town hall at Southeast, and then the following day or the following Monday, yeah. Following Monday, the city council passed a resolution where the city supports this as well. Yes. The no tax increase. That's a big vote of confidence from the city that they say, hey, hey guys, let's all support this and let's get this thing passed and and and and let's get a new, you know, these these additions made to our town and to our school. Yeah. That was very important. Something that what are the what are the assurances that the money will be spent to where we say what do you Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:15

Well the there's checks and balances for that, right. One of them is like you said, the money's gonna go directly from the tax that's being paid to the people that pay off the bond.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:25

Are you talking more specifically about staying within budget? Yes, and the proceeds. Like we get they they say, okay, we sell the bonds, here's $11.3 million. What would keep the school district from saying, oh, that's great, but we want to build a new whatever? Nah, we're gonna we're not gonna do what we said. What's the how how does that work? I know the I'm trying to put that out there. They there'll be pitchforks at the school board meeting that's the next school board meeting.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:51

First of all, yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:52

Yes, yeah. No, there I guess I I've asked the question. Uh there are their language in the bond that can only be specifically when you see the question on the ballot, yeah, it can only be specifically used for that. It can't be used for an operating indoor practice facility. Correct. Correct. I mean that no, no. That there's there's no bait and switch or nothing like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:15

The bond language has been drafted and has been turned in and it is ready to go. And you'll be able to see that on your ballot when you're voting, when you're checking yes to continue this.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:24

Just want our folks to know that that's it it it will be specifically used for that. I mean, there's not just a school board, but you have an architect, then you have a builder, then you have the bond people. It's not just one person that says, oh, here I'm gonna as well start writing checks out of that. Right. And it can't even be used for working or work salaries or anything.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:42

Any of that, it's got to be used for the capital improvement that's designated on the bond. That's correct. Speaking of voting, let's make sure that everybody comes out April 7th to vote. There's not a contested school board election. That's right. There's not a contested city county council. This is really the only thing on the ballot. It it may make some of you think, oh, my vote won't matter. There's no reason to go, it's gonna pass. Don't think that way. It probably matters more now than ever. It does. We need we need 57% and change. I forget if it's like 57.5? 14. Yeah. It's got to be that's harder than it sounds.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:17

Right. It's well, you you you you you just think about it. How do you get something through the Senate? I mean, like it's kind of the same.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:25

It could be a thin margin. Well, listen, just go back to the last bond. I mean, you and I were on the board, and we're talking about the hair of our chinny chin chin. I mean, this is it inside 20 votes? I was gonna say 30 or something. I mean, it was something it was down to the wire. You know, we're sweating this thing out to get it passed. Yeah, and and it passed, you know, it was a tax increase.

Southeast Elementary: Equity, Safety, Repurposing

SPEAKER_03 1:19:45

I understand there was you know hopefully less opposition to this, but there could have been you know more opposition to a tax increase, and I totally understand it. I'm not knocking anybody for voting against it. I understand. But in this instance, you know, we're hopeful of of that. But every vote counts.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:01

Don't think that it doesn't, because it it could come down to just a big, a resounding yes vote would mean a lot more than winning by 58 percent. Right. Absolutely. You know, let's let's go out there. We're all competitive in this room, we wouldn't be in the businesses we're in if we weren't. Right. And man, I want to win an overall 88. I want to win like the Bulldogs won last night.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:22

Exactly. We want it, we want a turbo clock on this thing. We want it to be not even close. We want this thing, I'm with you. I'm a resounding yes. Let's make this thing come off and make it happen. And so we we've talked about kind of where the money's going, what we're doing it, and the vote is what day? April 7th. That's the first Tuesday in April.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:43

First Tuesday in April, April 7th, 2026.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:46

Yeah, there we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:47

And what do we have a time to talk a little bit?

SPEAKER_05 1:20:49

Time again? Hold on. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:50

What are we gonna? We got hours if you want it.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:53

So if this when this vote, I'm gonna speak speaking confidently. That's right. When this vote is is passed and ratified, construction is not gonna start the next day, but we're gonna get it started just as soon as possible. I think Mike talked about that. Yeah, the goal is is to get it the doors open to the the new edition at Wing and the new edition at Lee Hunter August of 2027.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:22

Which would give us another whole year to discuss of grade school, you know. Yes, you know, yeah. That's right. What the buildings are going to use.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:30

Yeah. The the performing arts classroom will be started at a little bit later date. Yeah the priority, just full transparency, is to get those elementary schools built so that we can get all the kids moved and teachers and staff moved from southeast into those two new buildings. Somewhere along the line, the 12,000 square foot performing arts center is going to be started. Yeah. Classroom.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:57

I know. I call it that too. No, I call it that too. I get it. Rolls right off the tongue.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:01

But you got to get bids and everything else before you could start working great. Yeah, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:06

The the conceptual design is essentially done. Yes. Again, the the Dilly Pollard, the architect firm from Popper Bluff, has you know, they've got this essentially done, but we don't we don't just assume things, we don't assume that it's passed, we want it to pass before we go out and get actual bids on this. Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:28

Yeah, the district has been burned. Yes. And it costs a lot of money, and they learned their lesson. Yeah. Frankly, it was in 2014. Yeah, it's 2014. We got ahead of ourselves.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:36

We did. And and and that's one of the lessons that we learned is like, hey, let's let's let the voters speak first before we do that. Yep. We don't want to assume this thing. We we're hopeful, but we don't want to assume this passes. I'm with you. Yeah, it's the same thing. And and at that time, it would have been just about the next day start sticking shovels in the ground. But we're we're we're not doing that. We're not doing that. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:56

We are going to get in there as as quick as possible. And something that I think is important to mention while we're on this subject is that the these additions, the construction will not interfere with class taking place. Yeah. Right. So these construct this construction, these additions can be completed during the regular school year. Everything would be just business as usual in the elementary school for the 2026-27. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:23

It will be safe for the kids that are at the school and the staff and the parents and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:27

There's not going to be any work being done in the existing parts of the building. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:32

I'm I'm saying it'll be barricaded or blocked off. You're not going to be able to get over there. Kids aren't going to be, you know, standing under a crane or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:39

You know, we're going to it's going to be safe and it's going to be So the additions at Lee Hunter will will go out the south end of the building towards Cleveland Street, running in parallel with Allen Boulevard. Okay. That's where the nine classrooms will be added there. And then at Wing, they will come out kind of to the southwest toward 60. Mm-hmm. That direction. And if you've driven by either school, you you can see there's room, you know, plenty of room. Basically on the opposite end of the gym. Yeah. Opposite end of the gym. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:11

Wherever the gym is, the gym at Wing, if you're looking at it, is on the left and the gym and Lee Hunter's on the right. So it would be the opposite sides of it. Yeah. So it's they're ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:21

And and did I I don't guess did he give a timeline for the performing arts classrooms? He did not.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:28

We do not have a timeline um set in stone for those as of right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:32

But again, it it can be done with no disruption of school. Right. It's in a you know, probably back sum and and it will be cordoned off, so to speak, so it's not you know involving kids and safety and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:45

Yeah, I don't want to speculate, but I would think t as as the additions are winding down at the elementaries, I would assume that the focus is gonna turn to the performing arts classroom. Right. You know, so it's not gonna be that far behind, it's not gonna be five years behind it, but it could be a year behind it. Yeah. Something like that year or two.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:04

And it's it will probably be uh well, it may be even simpler to build.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:10

It's gonna be uh standalone, yeah. Just a yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:14

So you know, maybe the timeline could be a little shorter constructing that than the two elementary school or the two elementary meetings on those schools.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:22

If you're listening out there, Mike Collard, yeah. Yeah, he's the architect.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:27

That's right. So yeah, we're putting him on the spot. No, and and just speak to them. They've been a great team and a great partner with the school district. They are let me let me mention that real quick too. Something I don't we haven't really brought up, but the school board is adamant, and Aaron, again, Aaron knows this too. We are adamant and have expressed this on more than one occasion with Mike, and they go out of their way to do this to get any local contractors, any local businesses we can use on part of this. We don't just say, okay, give us your money, and then we go get people from St. Louis right now. I'm not saying that there won't be because we don't have we don't have a commercial HVAC company inside. Now we have commercial roofing, we've got steel, you know, we have some electrical stuff, we have some folks that can do those things, but Mike knows that we are adamant about local people doing as much work as possible. Yes, site work and stuff like that. We have some local people that can do that, and so we want to assure our voters and our constituents that we we want as much money to stay here locally as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:38

We're gonna keep as much of that here as we possibly can.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:40

And buy whatever they can buy here locally, as far as the supplies and the renting equipment and whatever we can do. So I I just want everybody to understand that not a hundred percent of it can it just eat at our restaurants. Right. They're if they're out of town, they're gonna that's right, they're gonna eat here and they're gonna stay here and spend money at our hotel and go to Hey, how are we doing? I'm back. Technical difficulties at all? Man, we had them last night during the during the game. Oh man. It was Andon's mic sounded like he was a robot and all kinds of so I don't know. We we got it all worked out, but I don't know. I hit this dang chord. Andon's a nice ad to the Andon is listen. We were sitting by his mother last night. He's terrific, man. He is so I'm so bad, and he is so good. He's a he is really good on play by play.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:30

You're good, man. Don't sell yourself shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:32

He Andon is awesome. He does great. But thank you for saying that. I appreciate that. But we're I what were we talking about? The the oh being local. So staying local. Yeah, we'll keep everything local as we can. What are the what are the top couple of questions that you get from voters? Have we kind of covered them already?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:55

I think we've really covered them already. A lot of it has been around the tax levy. And you know, what does, you know, what does it mean if, you know, the I truly think the biggest question that we get is do our taxes go down if this doesn't pass? Okay. And you know, we have hit on that already.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:09

Can you think of that and the in the grade school? Those are the two probably that come up the most often.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:16

Okay. And if if people have questions, where where's the what's the best place that they can go for clarification?

SPEAKER_00 1:28:24

Yeah, absolutely. You can reach out to us directly if you have our contact information. You also can please follow our Facebook page, Better Schools, Better Communities. You'll you can find that on Facebook. You can reach out to us on there. We also have a website, Schools4Siksten. So the number four schoolsforsiksten.com, and there's a contact portion of the website. You can reach out to us there as well, and there's some great information on the website.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:49

Schools number four seiksten.com. Correct. Okay. Yes, okay. I'll make sure to have that. Uh it'll be on one of our posts as well. Okay. A couple of I say personal, not personal in that way, but to make it about you all. What what why did each of you choose Liz go for? First, why why did you choose to to be part of this and to be a co-chair? I mean you're you're not a bulldog.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:17

I'm not a bull. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, you're not a native bulldog. I was not born and raised a bulldog. I was born and raised. Um I've always bled red and black. Yes. Um, but I was born and raised a Bearcat, just to the west of us here. And but the school district, what it offers to the community is so, so important, as we've discussed already. But what it offers to me personally, my mom worked in the school district at Dexter my entire life. She was at the third through fifth building. Uh, she was a speech pathologist there, and she drove into me a massive respect for the public school district. My grandfather on my mom's side also, he was on the board of education in Orion, his hometown,

Accountability, Ballot Language, And Vote Threshold

SPEAKER_00 1:30:06

for years and years and years. And I think he passed on that love of public education to my mom, and she passed it on to me. I had a great experience at Dexter, and I want my son to have a great experience here in Sykeston. My husband is from Sykeston. He had a great experience growing up here and going through the public school district, and we want the same for our son. He's three, he's headed to pre-K as soon as I can get in there. And we just really love this town, really love this community, and want to continue to see it thrive because we would like to be here for the rest of our lives.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:39

Yeah, great. That the Littleton name's been around a long time. Yep, sure has.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:43

Yeah, for me, similar, just community pride, the the pride I have in living and being from Sykston, uh, grandparents, extended family, raising my family here. I hope that at least two out of the three boys, if not all three, raise their family here. I just want what's best for the town. And I know that the faculty and staff at Sykston High School work their tails off, and they deserve the very best of everything. And, you know, as a member of the community, I'd like to try to do what I can to bring that to them and as well as all the kids. You know, there's thousands of kids that are going to be affected by this decision in a couple of months. Yeah. And we hope that the community realizes that and and carries that burden to the polls and votes yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:36

That's great. That's great. And it's not just like you said, it's not the current 3,400 kids in the district. It's the current or the future thousands that could be coming through. My grandkids, your grandkids, your kids, your grandkids. Yeah. Thousands of kids. You're right. You've and there's no telling how many that have been through the schools. You know, and I'm thankful for the generation that you're talking about and that were before us that at some point we had to build a Lee Hunter and build a Matthews and build a field house and build the high school, right? Some point they that generation invested into our future. So it just happens to be our turn. Yep. We have to continue to invest in our in in the future behind us, although it won't well, I it will, it will directly impact me because because we have new schools and new businesses come, my house will be worth more in ten years than it is now, right? We we all want that to be the point.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:32

I mean, if even if you don't have kids in the school district, it's still a win for you and your property and your way of life, and you know if if you taxes for your business for right.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:42

If we want to look at it selfishly, yes, it it it does affect all of us.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:47

I was complaining about taxes one time, and my father-in-law said, Okay, he said, What what do you think that road that you're gonna drive down? Yeah, how do you think that got paid for? What about that school? He said, Taxes by civilization. That's he doesn't. And I looked at him like I he had three heads, but he's exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:05

Yeah. Well, I know that's what we talked about earlier. Um you had to build that road, you wouldn't be there, probably.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:11

That's right. Be on the dirt road stuck in the mud.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:14

Exactly. In a probably in a wagon somewhere, right? So we're we're we're thankful for that and those that did that. Can could voters, if they wanted to, could they go visit Southeast if they wanted to walk through there and kind of see or Wing or Lee Hunter if they if they don't have kids? They they can.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:33

That would have they can't just show up. Right. That's what I mean. But if if anybody wants to tour one of these schools after hours or even before or on a weekend, I I can I bet we could arrange that. They can make that happen.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:46

Yeah. Yeah. At a minimum, contact our or contact the school itself, contact the principal at that school and just tell them, you know, hey, can you give me a 10-minute tour at the end of the day or something or whatever. You know, try not to inconvenience them on a weekend. You know, they have f time with their families too. Yeah. But if you come there after school, I'm sure they would be willing to. I don't I don't want to speak for D and I don't want to speak for any other principals there that would do that. But I'm confident if you went there and said, hey, after most of the kids leave, can you walk me around a little bit and show me what they'd be willing to do there? Absolutely. I they are proud of their schools and they're proud of Southeast too.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:23

Yeah, and and feel free if you want to do that, feel free to use Liz or I as a conduit for that. We'll be happy to reach out to one of the principals at those schools and get you in touch with Dee or Gary or Dr. Handy. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:35

Possibly join the tour with D. Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean make it a you don't have to go by yourself. You know, you don't have to bring a hundred people, but if you know a small group, I don't know, five, ten, something like that, if you want to walk through there. Well, I'm confident they do that because they they allow, you know, like if kindergartners come in and want to see the school, they'll allow the family to come in there at some point and walk through the school and see the new school that they're that they're going to. So they'd be proud to open it for you, I assure you. If you if you have concerns or you want you just want to see it, that's where your tax money goes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:05

And all three of the elementary principals are are on board with this. And they are they have been in attendance at our town halls and have been huge proponents of this for us. So I I am confident that they uh would take the time to do a tour like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:19

Okay. What's your we we're keeping Micah up over here? I don't know what's going on with me. What's do you have one each of you have one message, one sentence to say to the voters? What what would it be? I'll put you on the spot real quick.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:38

Yeah. I think I I kind of already covered mine, but I will absolutely hit it on it again. It is so, so, so important for us to get these kids this equitable elementary experience. It is very, very different. It is strikingly different if you get into Southeast and you get into Wing and Lee Hunter, and these kids deserve an equ equitable experience in this public school district. So, and that I said it again, I'll say it again, that this is the most cost-effective way for the district to get there. So with the district is once again showing that they're being good stewards of our tax dollars and they're just trying to get the best for these first through fourth kids.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:14

Yeah. Yeah, I would just say, you know, this town historically has invested in its kids and its school district, and we would love to see that trend continue on April 7th. Yeah. And hopefully, again, if you're not registered, registered. If you have friends, encourage them to come out and vote yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:32

That's a good point. Where where could somebody go register to vote? City Hall? I think that's right. I believe that's right. I believe that's right. You can go to City Hall and probably go if you're in New Madrid County, you probably go to Can't you do it when you're driver's license or license bureau? Uh maybe. But at worst, if you're not registered, you contact your county courthouse or contact city, actually. Somebody at the city hall can tell you where

Timeline, Construction Logistics, Local Contractors

SPEAKER_03 1:36:55

to register. I'm confident you can register at City Hall to be ready for this. And you've got I don't you can't register right up until Yeah, you have to give it a few days before that would be a cutoff, and I'm not sure of the exact date. Try to get it done by the end of this month. Just to be safe. Just to be safe.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:13

Well, it's fresh on your mind from this.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:15

That's right. That's right. We we're we're hopeful that, and and again, don't forget April 7th, it's coming up. It'll be here before you know it. What if somebody wants a sign in their yard to support this?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:24

We would love for you to put a sign in your yard to support this. Um, feel free to reach out again on the Facebook or reach out to Aaron or myself directly and we'll get you one. I was out delivering them this morning, so you should be seeing them. They are good looking. You had a helper too, didn't you? Yep, I had a little helper. Uh Andrew rode around in the back of the car with me and we put a bunch of them out. So you should see those on your drives continuing.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:45

Yeah. And if you again, if you guys don't if you can't get in touch with them for whatever reason through Facebook, reach out to me or Micah. We'll get you in touch with Aaron or Liz and they can address whatever you need or bring you a sign or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:59

Posted on the Facebook that if anybody wanted one to let us know. And I've been sitting here getting messages. I can I can feel them buzzing in, getting messages with addresses to do some more deliveries.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:09

Perfect. Perfect. There'll be one. Hopefully there'll be one when they get done here, put one in my backyard to get that done. Again, April 7th. Give me three guests that you guys would recommend to come on. You don't have to be three apiece, be three total. Put them on the spot. It's easier. Three total? Or two or five or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:27

Have Shannon and Andy been on?

SPEAKER_01 1:38:28

Oh Andy hasn't, but Shannon has. Yeah, we gotta get Andy. We will.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:33

Has Greg Holfield been on? Yes. I'm sure I'm assuming. You got it, you got it. I know Will Pratt. I'm just trying to. He's my first. Well, I don't know if the new tennis coach can fill an hour. Okay. The new tennis coach. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:46

Just that was I think that may be the only coach that I haven't got. I've tried to get Lynn on here, and I gotta get her on, and she's like you keep both of them. Well, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:56

How about Jeannie Lingle? Have you had Jeannie Lingle? Well, you wouldn't have had her on yet, probably. That is a great con She is our new director for the Saxon Public Schools Foundation. She is a Spitfire. She's a Spitfire. Yes. She is a good sweet as can be, and she would be great.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:12

Yes. Thank you. It it's funny you mention that because we we I mean, most people, a lot of people know Jeannie, but she reached out to Aaron, my wife, and wanted to know. She's already got her wheels turned and she said She does.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:23

She's coming in hot. She's doing great.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:32

Well, I mean it's Acorp Sports, but I can't imagine they won't. I know we've got an extra headset. I think that would be terrific. Yes. Somebody wanted to buy the experience of doing a football game or basketball game or whatever. It was a great idea. She's full of great ideas.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:45

We're very excited for her enthusiasm. And you're on the foundation board. I am on the foundation board. Yep. Yeah. So we're we're very excited to get her in there. She uh started last Monday. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:55

Yeah. Yeah. She's a she's a spark plug for sure. Okay. Have you had Jason Trump on? Yes. Yes. Talk about. Oh, did actually he and uh Amy on. Good. Yes. Thank you for that. Yeah, we've had some good ones on. So we'll we'll these are great, great ideas. Genie's a great idea. I didn't even consider that, but she's she she'll be awesome. Yeah. And all right, listen, again, April 7th, no tax increase. April 7th, 2026. Get out and vote. If you're not registered, please register. If you're if you're a high school student and you're 18, register to vote. Absolutely. We can you hey, listen, your vote counts as much as mine or anybody in this room or anybody in town. We we implore you to vote. And I don't know if you've listened all the way through, but we end all of our broadcasts with Go Dogs, right, Micah?

SPEAKER_01 1:40:43

We do.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:44

And for you are Micah Harris. I'm Matt Tanner.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:47

Go Dogs.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:50

That's gonna do it for this episode of the Dog House. Thanks for hanging with us and showing love to Sykston, where small town pride runs deep and Bulldog grit never quits. Don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and share this with anyone who bleeds red and black. From the heart of the 573, this has been the Dog House, where Sykston stories always have a home.