Wagoner, Sperry school bond proposals passed
BY RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
5/12/10 at 4:42 AM
Multimillion-dollar bond propositions for new construction passed easily in the Wagoner and Sperry school districts Tuesday night.
Elsewhere, Claremore voters approved a reallocation of a penny sales tax, and Craig County voters approved the extension of a three-quarter-cent sales tax to build a community center.
The Wagoner school district's $8.57 million bond proposal, which passed with 77 percent of the vote, will add a multipurpose building with a stage and classrooms to W.R. Teague Elementary School and three classrooms to Central Intermediate School.
EllingtonElementary School will receive an addition to house the 4-year-old program, and the library at the high school will be expanded and renovated.
Included in the package are upgrades to technology, locker rooms, the band area and the football stadium, as well as the construction of an eight-lane track.
"The community really responded," Wagoner Superintendent Sonny Bates said.
"They said it loudly, 'We approved of what you're doing and what you want to get done and we're behind you.' So it's just wonderful to know. It really is."
More than 83 percent of Sperry school patrons voted for that district's $4.34 million bond proposal.
More than $1.7 million is earmarked to replace textbooks, classroom computers and software, and outdated and broken furniture.
About $1 million is slated to upgrade the district's computer network and improve campus security cameras.
Roughly $700,000 will be set aside for athletics and facilities improvements and nearly $800,000 for a regulation track facility.
A separate $865,000 bond proposal, which also passed, addresses transportation improvements.
Claremore's approved proposition will allow for the redistribution of an existing one-cent sales tax into areas such as water, wastewater and electric infrastructure, which have deteriorated and are in need of more than $100 million in upgrades, city officials said.
In Osage County, Fairfax voters approved the transfer of about 7 acres of municipal land, plus a building, for construction of a hospital.
Rhett Morgan 581-8395
rhett.morgan@tulsaworld.com
