The Oak Harbor school board approved a resolution to place a $121 million school bond measure on the February 2023 ballot.

The bond, which was approved during the Oct. 10 meeting, would fund the building of a new school on the fields next to Fort Nugent Park, rebuild three schools — Crescent Harbor Elementary, Hand-in-Hand Early Learning Center and HomeConnection — and renovate and re-utilize the Oak Harbor Elementary school site.

In February of this year, voters shot down a larger, $184 million bond measure that would have funded construction of three new elementary schools, the learning center and a new transportation center. The measure, which needed a 60% supermajority to pass, received less than 45% of the vote. The new measure will also need a 60% supermajority to pass.

“This is our second attempt at passing a bond resolution to construct elementary schools for our students,” Vice President Erik Mann said. “We have, again, a monumental opportunity to leverage a significant contribution from the Department of Defense and a contribution by the state to bring the cost for those three facilities down.”

The Department of Defense is providing 80% of the funding to rebuild Crescent Harbor Elementary and Hand-in-Hand Early Learning Center/HomeConnection due to the poor condition, overcrowding, and the locations of the schools, according to a press release from the school district.

“In an effort to be responsible fiscal stewards of taxpayer dollars, the Oak Harbor Public Schools continues to seek out additional funding sources to address the critical facilities needs of schools in the District, but this is not forever money.”

“This money is time bound and if the bond is not passed, the funding from the Department of Defense goes away,” Superintendent Michelle Kuss-Cybula said in the press release.

If the bond is approved by voters, the tax rate is expected to be approximately $1.24 per $1,000 assessed property value. According to the district, this is 30 cents less than what taxpayers paid in 2022.