by Mary Rupert
Just a couple days after passage of a $235 million school bond issue, Kansas City, Kan., Public School officials are already meeting to determine a construction management firm.
The Kansas City, Kan., Public School bond issue passed overwhelmingly at the polls on Tuesday night, with 78.5 percent of the vote. There were 23,053 yes votes to 6,289 no votes.
“We are thrilled by the confidence that the community has expressed in us, and we intend to make the best use of that money, and continue to work hard to graduate every student prepared for college and careers. It’s a strong show of support, and we’re thrilled,” said David Smith, a spokesman for the district. He added it was considered by some to be the largest margin of victory of any school bond issue they had seen.
Smith said once a construction management firm is selected, then the district can begin to lay out the projects.
“We know we can’t do everything at once,” he said. The district and the construction management firm will have to figure out what needs to be done first, and come up with a timeline.
At community forums, district officials said the bond issue will pay for four new schools, two elementary and two middle schools. It also will pay for repairs and maintenance at every school, Smith said. Many other projects were spelled out in the community forums held before the election.
Welborn Elementary School will be replaced with a new building at the same site, while White Church and Bethel elementaries will be combined into one new school on the White Church site, he said.
West and Coronado middle schools will be combined into a new building on the Coronado site, and Northwest Middle will have a new building on the Northwest site, he said.
Smith said there was a good community committee that worked to support the bond issue.
“We did get support, and we were deeply appreciative of that,” he said.
One of the selling points of the bond issue was that it would not increase current property taxes. Smith said he thinks that was important in the bond issue’s passage. The new bond issue replaces an older bond issue for air conditioning the schools that is being paid off.