The Alexandria Township Board of Education is holding a presentation on the proposed $8.3 million school referendum on Sept. 15, 2016, in the Alexandria Middle School Media Center.
ALEXANDRIA TWP. - The Board of Education is holding a presentation on the proposed $8.3 million school referendum at 6 p.m. Sept. 15 in the Alexandria Middle School Media Center.
Board members and school administrators will be available to answer questions and provide additional details after the presentation, according to an announcement on the district's website.
The district is planning a special election in December asking school district voters for $8.3 million to renovate and expand one school while shuttering another. The board voted June 16 to approve the ballot question.
The referendum would authorize the sale of bonds to update and expand Alexandria Middle School into a consolidated pre-kindergarten to Grade 8 school, and to close Lester D. Wilson Elementary School, it was previously reported.
Work would include:
- the addition of five classrooms adjacent to the existing media center for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students
- the moving of a baseball field to add parking to the middle school's lower lot
- renovation of existing classroom space to "improve lighting, temperature control, acoustics, ergonomics of furniture and technological readiness," according to a letter from Superintendent Matthew Jennings.
"With the current debt retiring, this project will still result in the average taxpayer seeing a decrease in the school portion of their property tax bill," Jennings stated. "Changes to the original 'renovations only' plan will result in less annual savings to our school budget.
"However, we will still save enough annually to preserve and enhance our current educational programs in the foreseeable future without having to exceed the 2-percent cap on the tax levy. Additional annual savings during the first few years will be used to replace the roof at (Alexandria Middle School)."