Alcona County voters to decide on $20M bond sale for Alcona schools improvements

Aug 31, 2023

Courtesy PhotoA student of Alcona Community Schools gets out of class on Wednesday in this photo provided by the school district. The district is seeking permission from voters in November to sell about $20 million in bonds to make widespread facility improvements.

LINCOLN — Voters in Alcona County will vote on Nov. 7 on a 20-year, $20 million bond sale proposal by Alcona Community Schools that would upgrade the school district’s facilities, improve safety measures, and provide a better learning atmosphere, school officials said on Wednesday.

To repay the bond buyers, property taxes in the district would rise by an estimated 2.2 mills, costing the owner of a $100,000 house about $110 a year in new taxes.

Several of the structures the kids use for their education were built in the 1950s, and, although they have had several rounds of slight renovations, Alcona Superintendent Dan O’Connor said more significant investment in the school infrastructure is needed.

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Alcona Bond Information Flyer by James Andersen

“Obviously, we have aging buildings that have had some updates over the years, but now the guts of the buildings need to be addressed,” O’Connor said. “The goal is to take care of what we have now and be proactive so we don’t have to be reactionary if something big happens.”

O’Connor said the district hired a consultant to conduct a study on the school district facilities and other needs. He said the information from the study was discussed with the district’s Board of Education, staff, and students, who whittled out some expenses to lower the cost of the project.

O’Connor said that, if the district included everything in the study’s recommendation, the school system would have needed about $30 million, which he said was too much.

“That is not something we wanted to do, so we continued to meet, reduced some things, and landed on this number,” he said. “Going for more wasn’t something we wanted to do with inflation rising and many people living on fixed incomes, so we scaled it back.”

Nearly every facility in the school district will have improvements made,” O’Connor said.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

O’Connor said the district’s elementary school would have a new multi-use educational and recreational building built, while improved security at a new secured entry and vestibule system would be applied. The fire alarm system would also be replaced, as would the gym floor and cafeteria seating. The building would also be compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, with a barrier-free entrance. An upgrade in the heating and cooling system is in the proposed project, and old boilers would be replaced.

Any hazardous materials in the school would also be removed and replaced.

Outdoors, the district would repair the bus parking lane, replace the parking lot, and improve the drainage around the building.

JUNIOR HIGH AND HIGH SCHOOL

The district has a long list of proposed projects for the building that houses its junior high and high school students.

The district proposes a large upgrade to its agri-science program’s Livestock Learning Centre. Classrooms would be updated, the wood shop and weight room remodeled, and the district would invest into instructional technology. The science lab would also be updated. The heating and cooling system would be replaced, as would the horizontal unit vents. Extensive electric work would be completed, too.

TRANSPORTATION BUILDING

The bus garage would also see more than a handful of projects.

New plumbing and sanitary piping would be reworked in the restrooms and heating and cooling systems would be replaced. A new fence and gates and concrete parking pads for the buses would be installed. The entry drive would be replaced, as would the lighting on the site. New fences would also be installed to help keep the facility secure.

O’Connor said that, because there would likely be nothing else on the ballot in November, the school district will have to pick up the cost of the election, but he is unsure what the price tag will be at this point.

He said that, if the proposal passes, work could begin in summer 2024 and he expected all the work to be completed sometime in 2027.

“Of course, things can change, but that is what our goal is,” he said.

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