Voters in the AGWSR School District will vote on a proposed $12.76 million bond referendum during November’s election.
A proposed $14,450,000 bond issue was defeated in the AGWSR School District in 2024, with 59.15% of votes cast approving the measure, and 40.85% voting against it. Bond referendums need 60% voter approval to pass.
BCLUW/AGWSR Superintendent Ben Petty tells RadioOnTheGo News after the bond failed in 2024, the district facilities committee got together to review community feedback in hopes of passing a slightly different version next month.
“There are some changes to this one. A lot of it’s the same. The overall scale of it, I know the facilities committee and the board wanted to be responsive to some of the feedback they got from the community. So, it did come in about $2 million, estimated less than that.”
If approved, funds will go toward high school science and family and consumer science classroom renovations, renovations to the industrial technology classroom, new bus barns in Ackley and Wellsburg, HVAC, mechanical, plumbing, electrical and roofing improvements.
“Many of those are original, very outdated, been malfunctioning quite a bit over the past few years from all indications I’ve gotten. And you get to the point with a lot of those where replacement parts to even fix are no longer available. So there’s certainly a need there in the high school to improve air quality, heating, ventilation, and so on. And like I said, the electrical panels are also very dated, and some of that infrastructure is in need of being replaced.”
The AGWSR School Board in September approved to move ahead with a bond vote and Petty says the next five weeks will be about informing the public about this year’s referendum.
“We’ve been trying to get the word out. A lot of it’s been kind of person to person in some cases with folks that are interested, but also on the district website and our social media. We’ve had some articles in the local paper and we’ll have some more in those coming out. And then we’re looking at planning time for tour and more of an explanation on it, but don’t have those dates set yet.”
A general chamber meeting will be held Thursday at the Prairie Bridges Park Pavilion as attendees will learn more about the upcoming bond referendum. That meeting will start at 6:00 p.m. More information on the AGWSR bond referendum can be found here.
