It's not the final commitment.
But Jefferson City's seven-member school board Monday night endorsed a proposal to build a second public high school, renovate the 1964 Jefferson City High School complex and improve financial support for some other programs.
A final board vote could come next month - the board has to decide by Jan. 24 on any issues it will place on the April 4 election ballot.
"It's a signal to the community of our intentions to pursue this project," Board President John Ruth told the News Tribune. "We're going to roll up our sleeves and work toward getting there."
Superintendent Larry Linthacum added: "We will continue to vet the process. I think we are moving forward with the plan."
Linthacum asked the board for the confidence vote so administrators can line up a campaign committee that would do the actual promotion of the two ballot issues that will be required.
Chief Financial Officer Jason Hoffman reminded the board Monday that voters must be asked to authorize the district to sell bonds and to separately raise the operating tax levy to pay for operations of the new school - and for some other district operations that officials say are needed.
The proposed tax increases would be 65 cents for each $100 of assessed property value to pay for a $130 million bond issue, and 55 cents for the operating levy increase.
The board's "confidence" vote came after four district residents - including three teachers - urged the board to hold the vote this coming year.
Sara McDonald, who lives in Callaway County and teaches at Lawson Elementary, said: "As a parent and staff member, I care very much about the future of the Jefferson City Public Schools. It matters to me personally and professionally."
She has two now-elementary children who would graduate from the district in about a decade.
Holly Nunn, who teaches at West School, said building a second high school would help the district with its overcrowding issues.
"I think a lot of the (district's discipline) issues are due to overcrowding," she said.
Melody Thompson, the librarian at Thorpe Gordon and a member of the district's Long-Range Facilities Committee, noted there always can be reasons for being cautious and delaying a decision.
"It's a big decision," she said of the bond issue proposal, "but sometimes you just have to move forward."
And Jacob Weston, who doesn't have children, yet, reminded the board: "The board has a special meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Dec. 22, to approve hiring architectural services for designing both the new building and the high school's renovations.
Linthacum said: "There's nothing that is more beneficial to a community than investment in its schools. You are preparing leaders for the future."
Hoffman noted the preliminary numbers suggest spending more than $44.16 million to renovate the current high school complex - including adding a second gym for all the girls sports programs that weren't a part of the high school program when the current facility opened in 1964. Building a new, second high school would cost almost an estimated $80.3 million, he reported.
The $130 million in bonds would be sold as needed, rather than all at once, and each issue would be retired over 20 years.
Hoffman said that adding 65 cents to the debt-service levy also would allow the district to seek no-tax-increase bond issues as early as 2021 for other needs, including a new elementary school on the east side.
Linthacum told the board: "We know that's a need identified by the Facilities Committee, but we feel there is a greater need in grades 9-12."
If voters don't approve building a second high school, he said, the district will have to spend about $300,000 to add some trailers at Simonsen 9th Grade Center in 2019, to hold the more than 700 students currently in sixth grade classrooms across the district.
The 55-cent operating levy increase would pay for the increased staff for the second high school, as well as returning the district to a program of regular textbook purchases - which hasn't been done in nearly a decade - establishing a program for regular technology upgrades, renovating the exiasting elementary schools every other year, improving the counseling and truancy programs for students with problem behaviors and adding a preschool class to Callaway Hills School.