On Tuesday, May 7, citizens of the Ovid-Elsie Area School district will have an opportunity to go to the polls to vote on a bond extension to provide the school system with $6 million to fund capital improvements throughout the district. By extending the existing bond debt an additional three years, the school system will be able to do these improvements without raising taxpayers’ existing rates.
It has been 15 years since the district’s two elementary schools were remodeled and rebuilt and 22 years since the middle school was built. These beautiful facilities were built to last, but they still need attention to maintain them for years to come.
Bond funds would be used to make improvements in the following areas:
• Create a 6th-grade science lab in an existing classroom
• Re-grind and cap parking lots at the bus garage, Leonard Elementary and E.E. Knight Elementary
• Replace the older portion of the roof at Leonard Elementary
• Resurface the track
• Tuck and point brickwork at the middle school
• Purchase buses
• Add safety and security items, such as additional cameras, and cover exterior windows with blast proof film
• Technology upgrades, such as necessary upgrades to many of the school system’s servers and replacing devices to maintain current levels
• Upgrade high school bathrooms
• Replace drainage, re-crown, top dress football field, top dress baseball, softball fields
• Add bleachers to the athletic field visitor’s side and high school gymnasium balcony
• Patch and re-coat tennis courts
• Replace original soundboard and lighting in the auditorium
• Replace aging food service equipment
• Build industrial arts storage barn
These bond-funded projects can be completed without raising the current millage rate by extending the length of the current bonds by only three years. These projects will allow the district to keep more dollars directly tied to classrooms and provide students and staff with the necessary learning tools to keep Ovid-Elsie Area Schools the nationally and state recognized district of academic and financial excellence it has been.
