CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH SUPERINTENDENT JAY KULBERTIS
The Gladstone Area Public School District’s request to extend existing bonds for another 30 years to make major upgrades to school facilities failed in Tuesday’s election. The unofficial vote total was 1,157 no to 798 yes, or 59-percent no to 41-percent yes.
“Very disappointing,” Gladstone School Superintendent Jay Kulbertis told RRN News Tuesday night. “I want to thank all the good people that helped to get the vote out, even though it didn’t pass. We’ll put our heads together, get with our board and administrative team, and strategize on how we’ll address some of our high-priority needs, because those aren’t going away.”
The bonds were originally sold back in the 1990’s when the current high school was built along M-35. The plan this time was to continue collecting that money for another 30 years, something that would have resulted in no net tax increase for property owners.
“We’ll circle back with folks, and do our homework, and really try to better understand what the disconnect was,” Kulbertis said. “The people we were talking to understood the benefit to the district, and to taxpayers (a lower rate), but clearly, there was a disconnect, and we’ve got to track that down.”
The proposal would have seen improvements done to the buildings, expanded STEM programs into the junior high level, improved the traffic situation at the Cameron Elementary School, and done an overhaul of the security system at the Gladstone High School.
Kulbertis says they’ll continue paying off the existing debt for the final three years of the bonds, with the possibility of a different proposal coming before Gladstone voters in the future.
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