Gore Special School Proposition passes to build new elementary
Voters passed a bond initiative on Tuesday that came without any additional tax liability for the Gore Public School District.
Voters passed a bond initiative on Tuesday that came without any additional tax liability for the Gore Public School District.
Voters passed the measure with 66.67% of the vote, with 344 people voting for the proposition, while 172 cast votes against it. These results will not be finalized until 5 p.m. on Friday.
The $11.9 million no-tax-increase bond proposal will fund the construction of a new lower elementary school, as well as the renovation of other school buildings.
The bond is a replacement bond to take the place of the current bond when it expires, Gore Superintendent Lucky McCrary said. “This is why the bond proposal is a no-tax-increase proposal.”
McCrary said the reason the school sought a replacement bond is because capital improvements — which is build- ings — can only be made by expenditures from a school’s building fund or a bond.
“Our building fund annually collects around $120,000 from local property taxes. This is used to make needed repairs and upkeep on district buildings,” McCrary said. “We are very selective on projects out of this fund to ensure the district has funds on hand for emergency situations like storm damage, large expense equipment failures, etc.
“If all local property taxes collected annually in this account were never used, it would take, at the current rate, more than 65 years to get the proposed construction costs for the proposed bond amount at the current cash value. This figure does not account for prices of materials and labor that will keep going up. The only option available to build a classroom building is a bond,” the superintendent said.
“Building costs will continue to increase, making every dollar we can get buy less, requiring a larger bond in the future to get the same building as proposed.”
McCrary said the current elementary building was constructed in 1966, per a construction plaque that was hanging in the building.
“The new facility will replace most of the existing original building with a new cafeteria, new library and larger classrooms,” McCrary says. “We will keep the cafeteria and office section of the current building to be utilized for the district business offices, a PE classroom, possibly classroom space if needed, and staff training facility (existing cafeteria) as no structural modifications will be needed for this repurposing.”
The new facility will provide a drive-through with covered awnings over sidewalks that parents access for the car rider line. The pull-through student drop-off/pickup line will be in front of the main building, eliminating pick-up and drop-off of students out in the street or having to go through the busy gym parking lot to walk students to the entrance.
