SJSD Elections for Tuesday

Night of campaigning in the st.

Joseph school district.good evening, i'm jodie o'brien a couple of big items on the ballot tomorrow include the $107- million dollar bond issue and elections for 3 board of education seats.

Kq2's kilee thomas with the preview.... that bond issue has proven to be divisive since it was announced a couple months ago.

If passed, it would pave the way for the district to consolidate down to a two high school system.

The district would purchase the american family building in east st.

Joseph and transform it into a new high school.

Benton and lafayette high schools would be reconfigured into middle schools current middle school would be closed along with several elementary schools.

Any left over money would go toward renovations inside central.

The district has released a 3d rendering of what the new high school campus might look like along with the new draft boundaries to go with it- generally students living in the northern part of the city would go to the new high school.

Those in the south would attend central.

The district cites the steady drop in student enrollment as their motive to consolidate schools... they say there's nearly 1,000 empty seats between the three existing high schools.

Superintendent dr doug van zyl says administrators and the board understand the emotional challenges that come with the bond, but he hopes voters will focus on facts rather than feelings.

(sot )"make it a non-emotional vote because this really is about in our opinion as a school district and i believe the opinion of the board, how do we move forward?

How do we do something as a district that's beneficial to our staff, students and our community by being efficient and effective with the tax dollars that we have."

Around 3/4 of the bond money would go toward the new school.

The rest is set to put in air conditioning in the three existing high schools as well as renovating central and updating central's athletic facilities.

If the market value of your home is $50,000 -- taxes would go up by about $28 dollars a year.

If your home is $100-thousand -- taxes would increase around $56 dollars a year.

And as for the three board seats up for grabs- 8 candidates and one write in are in the running.

The three with the most votes will win a three-year term on the board.

Now, if the school bond passes, these district changes will begin to take effect in two years.if the bond fails, the board of education says the district will still likely move towards a two high school model but with central and lafaytte staying intact and benton turning into a middle school.

Board officials say that decision is all based on student capacity.

Reporting in studio, kilee thomas kq2 news