COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – After taxpayers in the Coldwater Community School District voted down a $50 million bond proposal for what district officials said were needed upgrades at the high school, another attempt at getting the bonds approved will take place at the ballot box in May.
Superintendent Terry Whelan says they will seek permission from the State Department of Treasury on December 27 to call for the election.
A special meeting of the Coldwater School Board has been scheduled for January 3 to approve a resolution that would place a bonding question on the May ballot.
The amount of bonds that will be requested in May has not been determined but Whelan says there would have no additional millage for taxpayers. just like in the ballot proposal which was voted down in November.
Nearly 50 persons turned out Tuesday night during what was called a Town Hall input session in the Coldwater High School library to discuss what steps the district should take next after the defeat at the polls.
After supporting a new Branch County Jail, a new fourth and fifth grade elementary school and a Enhanced 911 project in recent years, fed up taxpayers in the Coldwater School district said enough already and defeated the school district’s bonding proposal last month 1,929 to 1,686.
It failed to pass in 10 of the 12 precincts. It was only approved in the City of Coldwater’s first and third wards. All of the townships that feed into the school district said no.
With the rejection at the ballot box on November 2, the district for now will have to make do with the conditions in the nearly 65-year-old high school where the original part of the building is starting to show its age.
The $50 million bonding proposal was designed to finance a 20,000 square foot expansion at the high school which would have included a second story.
A second proposal last month for a $17 million bond and a increase of point-39 mills that would have funded a 950 seat auditorium was soundly defeated 2,194 to 1,412.
It was the second time in six years that voters in the district turned thumbs down to a ballot proposal to build an auditorium at the high school.
Comments