DeKalb voters: No to $12.5M school upgrades
Voters in DeKalb Independent School District said no to a total of $12.5 million in bonds for a new gym and school improvements during Tuesday’s election.
Proposition A, for $10 million for districtwide safety and building construction failed, with 110 in favor and 967 against, according to complete but unofficial results.
Proposition B, for $2.5 million, which would have been matched by a $2.5 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to construct a new gym/safety shelter, failed in a 107-958 vote.
Superintendent Dr. John Booth said they were disappointed in the results, but that he and the board have a bit of a learning curve on what it will take to get a bond passed in the district.
“Not having done a bond issue here in many many years—over 30 years—it’s an education process of what a bond is, what it does, that sort of thing,” he said.
Voters were considering an increase of 30 cents per $100 property valuation on the existing $1.17, for a total of $1.47 per $100 valuation.
DeKalb ISD taxpayers do not pay interest and sinking taxes, which would fund new construction, and the $1.17 per $100 valuation is for maintenance and operations. Per state mandate, those funds cannot be used for construction, and voters
must approve bonds to fund new construction.
Proposition A funds would have been used to attach the prekindergarten building to the main elementary school building and the cafeteria for security and safety; add an administration office; tear down old buildings; and build a new band hall at the middle school, along with a library.
DeKalb ISD was a candidate for the FEMA money because it is in Tornado Alley, with the high school hit by a tornado in 1999 and replaced with insurance monies.
Booth said he and the board will regroup and reassesses what the community wants.
“Our next step is to go in, evaluate and get back out into the community find out what, if anything, they will support. … We’ve got a great staff that cares a lot about kids, and we’re going to keep teaching,” he said. “Then we’ll just get to the community and see what they want to do from here.”