Pauls Valley, Okla., school officials have now made it official — an early fall date awaits for another bond issue election.
A new elementary school and band facility are again the main projects for a special election now scheduled for Sept. 12, along with one addition.
Those same two projects were the focus of a bond issue vote in March that fell just short of passage by the slimmest of margins.
All five members of the PV Board of Education voted this week to place those same projects before voters a second time, while also adding a project calling for the demolition of the two elementary schools they hope to replace.
The board and Superintendent Mike Martin focused much of their attention during a July 12 meeting discussing better ways to deliver their message to voters on the need for these upgrades.
"We've got $200,000 in our building fund and a healthy $700,000 surplus, but we can't start spending that for upgrades because we've got to save it for repairs," Martin said.
"We never know what's going to go wrong next with those old buildings."
The superintendent is referring to the higher costs of maintaining and fixing up unforeseen problems with the buildings for both Jefferson Early Learning Center and Jackson Elementary. The main portions of both were constructed in 1940.
With this week's board approval the new bond issue has a slightly higher total but a lower projected increase for property taxes in the Pauls Valley School District.
This new proposed issue totals $21.86 million in a series stretching over 17 years.
If the issue does receive a supermajority of at least 60 percent support the initial tax increase is expected to be around 16.7 percent for local landowners.
Financial consultant J.C. Leonard says the numbers have a changed a little bit because this next election comes during a different fiscal year from the previous vote.
"We're in a whole different tax year," Leonard told board members.
"The biggest thing is this is a new tax year and taxes are different. It's very detailed financing and there's a lot of working parts."
As for the proposed tax increase, he says it would either stay the same over the life of the bond issue series or more likely go down if a trend of property valuations going up in Pauls Valley continues.
"It would stay the same or go down," Leonard said.
As with the previous issue this new one has the same plans for a new elementary school and band facility.
It calls for the construction of a new school to house students from prekindergarten up through the third grade.
Ada architect Tim Elliott said the plans for this project are pretty much the same as before, including the new school having a full scale gym doubling as a tornado shelter for the school and community as a whole.
Plans again call for it to go on the west side of PV near the local industrial park and next to the Garvin County Community Living Center near U.S. Highway 77 as it travels out of town northbound.
Now built into the new bond issue is the funding for the demolition of the Jefferson and Jackson school buildings, which will be torn down with the properties being swapped with the city of PV if the issue passes.
City officials have previously said the plan is to clean up both locations for future housing development.
"We want it known we have the demolition of Jefferson and Jackson as a line item," Elliott said.
The bond issue also again includes a proposed new building for the local band program right on the PV High School campus.
Martin adds he will be working over the next few weeks to answer questions and help local residents avoid some of the confusion coming from the March bond issue.
"I'll be out there telling people we're not just throwing our money up in the air. These are projects that are going to be bid out and we'll take the lowest bid," he said about the issue going through the competitive bidding process.
He's quick to add passage of the bond issue will also free up regular school monies to address other smaller projects, such as air conditioning at the high school gym.
"Every location will receive a project," board President Katie Johnson said about other local schools.
