By Matt Clevenger
TROY — Members of the Troy City Schools Board of Education have approved the second of two resolutions needed to place a potential bond issue on the ballot for voters during the November election.
“It will all be combined as one vote with two different components,” district treasurer Jeff Price said during the board’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting held on Monday, July 10. “The first paragraph will deal with the new elementary buildings, and the second paragraph will deal with the half-mil maintenance and the funding mechanism for the high school HVAC project.”
“The total millage is 6.96 mils,” Price said.
The new levy would amount to approximately $20 per month per $100,000 of home value, board member Doug Trostle said.
The funds would be used for the construction of four new school buildings, as well as renovations to the HVAC system at Troy High School. If the bond issue passes, building construction would be expected to take approximately three years to complete.
Board members also heard a formal recommendation from the district’s building committee regarding the planned placement of new school buildings.
“The committee has confirmed the locations for the new buildings,” board president Sue Borchers said. “We would like to put the pre-K through fourth-grade buildings on the 718 and McKaig Avenue site, the Hook site and the Cookson site, and a fifth and sixth-grade building on the Swailes site.”
“We believe that having Hook be a pre-k through fourth-grade is a better purpose for that because it is a little bit smaller site, and also allows more walkers and more community access as well,” she said. “Everyone’s really excited about those locations; I think we have a lot to give the community back, with that plan.”
The bond issue will also include funding for maintenance at the new buildings, and for improvements to the HVAC system at the high school building.
“We’re going to do some pretty signifigant infrastructure changes to the high school,” Borchers said. “We will be putting in new ceilings, and abating it as well, and also doing an electrical upgrade. I’m sure that those who have spent time in the high school in the last year will appreciate that, because we have had some power outages that have been disruptive to our classrooms.”
“That will be a huge upgrade,” she said. “That will probably be a multi-year project.”
The district is also working with the Marketing Essentials marketing group to help spread word about the bond issue’s importance. The marketing group is being supported by the Troy Chamber of Commerce.
“They have agreed to help support us in hiring a marketing group,” Borchers said.
“We are super-excited,” she said.
The group is currently working on a website, building committee member Kathi Roetter said.
“We will officially launch the campaign in August,” Roetter said.
“We’ll be reaching out for volunteers to help out with the campaign in the next few months,” Borchers said. “We will have quite a few events, and also just to educate the community on why this is needed.”
“It’s a lot of orchestration in a teeny tiny amount of time to get that accomplished,” she said. “We also have to reach a large number of voters who do not have students in the schools; we are open to any and all suggestions.”
In other business, board members also approved student handbooks and codes of conduct for the 2023-2024 school year, and minor annual updates to the district’s athletic policy and student fee schedule. Fees will remain the same, except for slight increases at the high school.
“We try hard to maintain our fees at the lowest level possible,” district superintendent Chris Piper said.
