Lakeland Voters Get School Issues

Lakeland School District voters will head to the polls today to determine the fate of proposed bond issues totaling nearly $10 million.

The school district says schools are becoming crowded. Critics of the bonds are asking that costs be pared down by at least $2 million.

The polls will be open from noon to 8 p.m. at district elementary schools, the Bayview Community Center, and the Twin Lakes and Hauser Lake fire stations.

There are two bonds on the ballot. The first, totaling $9.3 million, would pay for a 450-student junior high school in Spirit Lake. At other schools, the bond would also fund 12 new classrooms, a gym, covered play areas and future school sites.

The second bond, totaling $650,000, would pay for a central hot lunch kitchen to prepare food for all district schools.

If approved, the bond wouldn’t raise tax rates above the 1995 rate of $2.19 per $1,000 property value. That’s because taxpayers just paid off the bonds that paid for construction of the high school.

, DataTimes