Lakeland asks for expansion

The Lakeland School District is asking voters for $14.2 million to build a new elementary, improve existing facilities and purchase land for another future school – and because the district is rapidly growing, school officials say the new bond wouldn’t result in a higher tax rate.

An election has been set for Oct. 18.

The new elementary school, designed to hold 350 students, would be built near Twin Lakes on 17 acres that the school district already owns, Assistant Superintendent Ron Schmidt said Wednesday. The site is on Highway 41, just south of Rice Road.

Schmidt said the new school could help relieve congestion at each of the district’s five elementaries. If voters approve the bond, the new school could be open in fall 2007.

Costs for the elementary school are estimated at $6.2 million.

The proposed bond also includes:

•$550,000 for improvements to district elementary schools, including expansions to the lunchroom at Garwood Elementary and the office and main entry at Spirit Lake Elementary. The district also wants to add wireless computer labs and science labs at each elementary.

• $6.3 million to remodel and expand Lakeland High School, adding 10 classrooms, expanding the gym and locker rooms, upgrading science classrooms, expanding the library and office, adding parking and upgrading the school’s heating and ventilation.

•$1 million to acquire land for a future secondary school.

•$150,000 to expand the district’s food service facility.

According to the district, the bond will not increase the district’s current overall levy rate, which is $2.10 per $1,000 of assessed value. Schmidt said the district is able to do that because existing bond debt was refinanced for lower interest rates, because interest rates continue to remain low and the district’s population and tax base are increasing. However, if the bond fails, the tax rate for bonds and facility levies could drop to $1.80 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Superintendent Chuck Kinsey said the district has worked hard not to increase its levy rate and instead allow the growing market value to fund new facilities.

“To some extent, growth is paying for the needs,” Kinsey said.

If the bond is approved, the district said it would be able to move ninth-graders from Lakeland Junior High to the high school. Schmidt said the district already made that change last year in Spirit Lake when they opened the new Timberlake Junior High there.

It’s a change parents and the district support for a number of reasons, Schmidt said. Some ninth-graders have a hard time getting in the high school frame of mind when they’re still at a junior high, he said.

He said the district has also had to send some ninth-graders across the busy highway to Lakeland High to take classes that weren’t offered at the junior high.

The district and a committee of employees and district patrons considered other sites for the new elementary, including a site the district owns near Hauser Lake. He said a site hasn’t been identified yet for the district’s next secondary school, though the bond includes some funds to purchase property.

Schmidt said the district will start looking at sites immediately if the bond is approved.

Polls will be open noon until 8 p.m. Oct. 18 at each of the district’s elementary schools, the Hauser Lake Fire Station, the Bayview Community Center and the Twin Lakes Fire Station.