The facilities plan the community helped develop for the New Philadelphia School District is up for vote in this election.
Issue 8 is a 72-million dollar, 37-year-bond issue to consolidate the district’s seven aging schools into two new educational facilities.
Superintendent Amy Wentworth says the first for kids in preschool through sixth grade would be built on the same property as south elementary.
The district qualifies for a 56-percent state funding match for two new buildings but has to pay for the first one upfront. The assistance would then come sometime in the next five years and fund a new 7th-thru-12th-grade school at a location to be determined.
The schools in the district are around 70 years old on average, and found the infrastructure to be ‘unsustainable.’
“Although we did look at renovating those buildings, it was determined that first of all, that would not be a significant cost savings and even with a renovation, the layout and the structure of the buildings just would not be conducive to modern learning.”
If approved Tuesday, issue 8 would increase property taxes in the school district by just over 20 bucks monthly for every hundred thousand dollars of home value.
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