A 3.5-mill bond issue that voters passed 23 years ago and funded the building of a new school for grades 2-12 on Yankee Road is set to be paid off in 2029 and it would be replaced by the lower bond issue, he said.
Monroe’s proposed 3.49-mill rate translates to $122 annually per $100,000 home, or slightly less than the current 3.50-mills, according to the district.
The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) would provide $25.36 million of new high school’s $62.10 million projected price tag, the superintendent said. The proposed local tax bond would supply the other $36.74 million to cover the new, 9-12 high school planned for the current Yankee Road Campus.
The $36.74 million bond would not exceed 36 years of collection, officials said.
The district has seen its student population nearly double since 2004 with no end in sight as residential numbers continue to climb, city and school officials have said.
When the school on Yankee opened during the 2004-2005 year, the district had 1,500 students, Buskirk said. In the last 20 years, enrollment has nearly doubled to 2,900, according to the latest numbers from May 2024, he said.
Main campus, which houses grades 2-12, enrollment is already at 130% above its designed capacity, Buskirk said, and this bond issue for a new building — preliminarily planned, pending OFCC approval, for the southeast corner of the campus now used for athletic practice fields — is a cost-effective solution.
The need for a new high school, projected to be built on the 186 acres on Yankee Road, is “real and will not go away,” Buskirk said.
If voters reject the bond issue, school officials said they will be forced to “begin implementing stop-gap measures that could include the addition of modular (portable) classrooms to address capacity and class size issues.”
If the bond issue passes Buskirk said potential building plans would be shared with Monroe residents through numerous community meetings. If a new high school is opened, possible sometime during the 2027-28 school year, Buskirk said the building on Yankee Road would be used for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students.
The district owns the primary school building at 225 Macready Ave., that was built in the late 1950s, and it could have several potential uses, he said.
After Buskirk made a recent bond issue presentation to City Council, Monroe Mayor Keith Funk said a “good school system” is paramount if the city wants to continue to attract residents and businesses.
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