Before formally sending a new bond issue to voters, the Oak Harbor School District took some time last week to pat itself on the back for how it handled the former bond issue.
Next Monday, Nov. 25, two bond resolutions will be passed that will set in motion a bond election in March, 2003. Voters will be asked to approve $45 million in bonds to improve the high school through a combination of new construction and renovation.
But more than $45 million in improvements may eventually be obtained, based on how the bond election in 1996 turned out. Then, voters approved $23.8 million in tax collections through 2003, but the school district was able to parlay that into $46 million in total spending.
“We did a fabulous job, much more than we anticipated we’d be able to do,” Superintendent Rick Schulte told the school board Nov. 12.
With the local tax dollars assured in 1996, the school district was able attract more money through state matching grants in a process that was anything but automatic. Obtaining the grants was an exercise in carefully matching construction jobs to available money, Schulte explained. “For every local dollar, we got 96 cents from state and other sources.”
Thanks to the outside money, spending on the district’s six existing elementary schools and one middle school was nearly double what was anticipated in 1996. And the new middle school cost less than projected as some money was used to further upgrade the existing middle school, making the two facilities comparable in what they offer students.
Among the additional items the outside funding allowed were:
l New libraries with computer lab space at Broad View, Crescent Harbor, Olympic View, and Clover Valley elementaries.
l New kitchens at Broad View, Clover Valley, Crescent Harbor, Hillcrest, and Oak Harbor elementaries, and a new central kitchen at Olympic View.
l New student drop-off areas at Broad View, Olympic View and Oak Harbor elementaries.
l New staff lounges at Broad View, Olympic View, Crescent Harbor, and Clover Valley.
l New energy efficient walls, casework, lighting fixtures, and upgraded roofs and mechanical systems at various locations.
Schulte referred to such additions as “value added” to the original bond proposal. “This is something to be proud of,” he said.
Board member Kathy Chalfant concurred. “A great job was done on these construction projects,” she said.
