ASHLAND, Mo. - A $7.5 million bond issue in the Southern Boone School District passed with a wide margin of victory, and the district will move forward with construction in the next couple of weeks.
In order to pass the bond issue, the district needed a 57.2 percent approval, and the count came in at 68.13 percent, or 855 votes out of 1,255 total votes.
The $7.5 million will provide funding for the construction of eight classrooms at the kindergarten through second-grade primary school plus a full-size gymnasium with a stage. Four new classrooms will be added onto the third- through fifth-grade elementary school, and a weight room will be built onto the high school's current gym, said Superintendent Chris Felmlee.
Felmlee said the buildings are currently at capacity. With the new development and expected development, the district wants to make room for incoming students. In the next few years, one subdivision will add around 150 houses to the area.
Kindergarten already has 130 students signed up for the next school year, numbers Felmlee said he wouldn't typically see until August.
"We don't have the classroom space that we desperately need," Felmlee said.
The bond equates to a 15-cent tax increase for district residents. Someone with $150,000 worth of combined personal property, including real estate, would pay an additional $42.65 in property taxes.
"Honestly, the residents of Southern Boone have a long history of being supportive of education to make sure every student has an excellent education," he said. "People move here so their kids can attend our schools. ... It's a great win for Southern Boone students, our residents and the businesses that are located here."
Felmlee expects the expansion will house the district's growing student population for around seven years, and in another four years the district plans to ask voters to approve an expansion for the middle school.
The district successfully passed a bond issue about five years ago to expand the high school and middle school.
Felmlee said he was cautiously optimistic about the current bond issue, but said the community has always been very supportive of the schools.
The expansions for the elementary and high school are expected to be completed by early fall 2017, and the primary school's completion will follow shortly after in late fall 2017.
See additional election results in our Politics section.