McLoud schools are about to look a bit different. The school district passed a bond proposition on April 7 worth $20.9 million to improve and build facilities with support of 68.45 percent.Only31.55percent voted against.
“We’re excited and this is, you know, it’s going to touch every campus in some way,” said Superintendent Bill Caruthers.
The biggest part of the construction is building a new high school addition with 22 classrooms, a common area, meeting rooms, and new science and family and consumer science rooms. It’ll also have an 11,000 square foot safe room. They also plan to renovate the high school gym to create an exterior entrance.
“The high school gymnasium is a nice gym, but we’ve always had to go in through the existing high school facility to get in there. We’re moving the entrance to the south side of the building, so there’ll be an entrance straight into the gym,” Caruthers said.
The junior high and administration buildings will be getting new roofs, there will be new parking at the gym and a new drop off/ pick up lane and parking at the junior high. A new playground will be built at the elementary school on Fourth and Oklahoma, and all of the current playgrounds will undergo improvements and safety upgrades. The Fine Arts building will get soundproofing in the band room and new lights, sound and curtains in the theatre. The ag education building is also getting its own safe room.
It’s a lot of projects in a lot of places, Caruthers said, in addition to a lease purchase program for sports improvements that doesn’t have to do with the bond itself.
“We’re projected to grow over the next several years and so we’ve tried to futureproof our district as much as possible for the next several years,” Caruthers said. “I’m proud of the community for doing this for our kids and for themselves.”
He added that the stronger the school is, the stronger the community is and the stronger property values are maintained, so it’s a win-win for everyone. The bond will keep taxes flat and they will actually decrease a little as they have a bond rolling off, Carruthers said. They also have a gap year built in and the bond won’t interfere with that.
“The future for this community looks a lot brighter today than it did a couple of days ago,” he said.
Aproposition for Central Tech, however, failed, with 49.15 percent voting for and 50.85 percent voting against. The proposition for a $2 million tax increase would have funded expansion of the tech school.
Carney, Stroud and White Rock school districts all had school board races onApril 7. In Carney, Stacy Knox won with 60.58 percent of the vote compared to Jesse Townsend with 39.42 percent. In Stroud, Melody Hightower won with 59.39 percent, beating out Bryan Dervin who received 40.61 percent. And in White Rock, Bryan C. Vann won 61 percent of the vote, compared to Peyton Peters with 39 percent.