The Clarkston, Idaho, School Board decided this week to aim for a high school construction bond election this November, instead of February 2018.
The board had discussed February as a likely date for the measure since announcing it would pursue a high school modernization project, but Superintendent Tim Winter said the timing looks better for November.
"The holiday break prior to the February bond makes it hard to do some of the things we want to do to promote the bond," Winter said.
The success in March of adjacent Lewiston School District's bond proposal for a new high school was part of the equation as well.
"Certainly Lewiston's success is good for the valley," Winter said. "We've already formed a citizens group, so we have some momentum on our side of the river, too."
The fact that the last proposal the district put before voters was during February was another factor in choosing a different election date, Winter said. A $38 million bond measure for replacing Clarkston High School's east wing received just 41 percent approval in February 2014.
"We're just trying a different angle on this," he said.
Architects Greg McCracken and Tom Bates of BLRB Architects in Spokane signed off on the earlier date, Winter said. "They're good to go."
The architects will provide a project update, possibly with cost estimates attached to it, at the school board's next regular meeting on May 22. A community meeting about the bond proposal is scheduled for the next day.
The proposed project would replace most of the existing school east of the auditorium along Chestnut Street, Winter said, preserving the original Adams Building that faces Sixth Street. The redesigned school would put all academic programs under one roof, he said, improving safety and better serving academic programs.
"All of that would be brought together in a more compact setting," he said. "So the school is more tightly together than spread out."
