Vote Tuesday on Lafayette School Bond Referendum

By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff writer
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

Residents living inside the Lafayette County School District are being asked to head to the polls Tuesday to cast their vote in favor of a $24 million bond referendum for a new elementary school.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. All precincts will be open; however, only residents inside the school district boundaries will be able to vote.

The district needs 60 percent of the votes to be in favor of the referendum for it to pass.

By law, the school can only borrow up to 15 percent of the assessed value of the county, which is currently $155 million. That would allow the LCSD to borrow no more than $24 million if the bond passes.

Rendering of the proposed Lafayette Lower Elementary School.
Graphic provided by Innovative Construction Management

If approved, most of the funds will be used to build a new elementary school off County Road 406, close to the current LCSD campus, for pre-K through second-grade students. Other projects will include adding classrooms to Lafayette Middle School, renovating the current elementary school to for third-grade students and add some restructuring in current classroom layouts at Lafayette Upper Elementary School to accommodate overgrowth, and building a new sheltered walkway to accommodate a need to move students to and from the middle school and high school during the lunch hour.

In the 2011-2012 school year, the district had about 2,500 students. Enrollment for this school year shows there are currently just under 3,000 students.

The current lower elementary school houses about 665 students. The new school will be built to handle 880 students with room to add an additional two wings in the future when needed.

If the bond passes, taxpayers of Lafayette county could see a 1-mill tax increase on properties and car tags. However, Superintendent Adam Pugh said at a public meeting recently that it was possible a millage increase wouldn’t be necessary.

As a temporary fix, Superintendent Adam Pugh has said the school district has added several trailers to campus for classroom space. If the bond doesn’t pass, Pugh said more trailers would be needed to accommodate the school district’s growth.

“We are at capacity everywhere,” Pugh said last month. “But our greatest needs is the lower elementary and middle school.”