Schools set $34.5 million bond issue

The Mountain Home School District will ask voters to approve a $34.5 million bond issue on Sept. 6 that would complete Phase II of the long-delayed high school project.

The proposal would raise the monthly mortgage on a home assessed (after exemptions) at $100,000 by roughly $8.50.

The highlights of the proposal include:

* Adding an additional classroom wing onto the existing junior high building, creating 26 new classrooms (plus two that would be "shelled in" for future expansion).

* Expanding the audio-visual labs and commons areas.

* Building the "competition gym" required by state standards for a high school. That gym would be able to seat 3,000 people, nearly double the size of the current gym, and could be used for indoor graduation ceremonies (it would be fully air conditioned).

* Creating a 500-seat auditorium that would be used as a daily teaching station for band, choral and theater classes, as well as being available for community events, such as those put on by the arts council. Classroom space for the band and choral programs also would be greatly expanded.

* Provide for expanded vocational-technical facilities that would allow the district to double the number of students it can serve with those programs. Currently, the district is turning away students due to a lack of space for them.

* Rebuild the roof over the 55-year-old existing high school gymnasium, which a recent engineering study done for the district indicated needed to be replaced in the near future. That project alone is $1.5 million and will have to be done whether the bond passes or not.

* Construct a parking lot capable of handling approximately 760 vehicles, plus all curb and gutter work that would be required by the city on the property surrounding the current junior high.

If approved, the district would move all ninth-grade students into the high school, a move district officials believe will help encourage better student performance. "This (high school) is where it all happens," said school board chairman Jim Alexander. "This is where they create credits" toward graduation.

It also would allow the district, he said, to better utilize its teaching resources to provide remediation programs for students who have fallen behind, giving them a better chance for successfully graduating.

Seventh- and eighth-grade students would be moved to the existing high school. That would relieve pressure on Hacker Middle School, by moving the seventh-grade students out of that facility.

Hacker is chronically overcrowded. This year, for example, a two-room "temporary" building has been added to the school site, which also includes the district's oldest building, the 1926 high school currently used as the Hacker annex. By taking one grade out, Hacker would be able to handle the fifth- and sixth-grade students that would remain, without being overcrowded.

The elementary schools would remain grades K-4.

In breaking down the costs of the bond, the classroom wing expansion (which would be a two-story T-shaped expansion west from the existing classroom wing) would cost about $8 million, the gym would run about $12 million (its high cost was the reason it was left out of the original Phase I plan), the vo-tech building would cost about $3 million, the auditorium about $3 million, $1.5 million for the new room at the existing high school, and $2.5 million for expansion of the band room, choral room, audio-visual center and the commons area. The rest (about $3.5 million) would involve the parking lot, curb and gutter, landscaping and furniture and equipment for the various classrooms and facilities.

The district also would be asking the state to expedite placement of street lights at either 14th East St. or 18th East St. and American Legion, to handle the traffic load the school would create.