By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY — Three school bond proposals will be highlighting a special election happening this Tuesday, May 2 in St. Joseph County.
Two of the proposals will have an impact on communities in St. Joseph County, as Centreville and Constantine will have school bond proposals to help fund work on their school buildings.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the following locations:
- Constantine Township Hall, 165 Canaris St.
- Florence Township Hall, 64010 Burgener Rd.
- Lockport Township Hall, 58982 Holtom Rd.
- Mendon Township Hall, 136 W. Main St.
- Nottawa Township Hall, 112 S. Clark St.
- Park Township Hall, 53640 Parkville Rd.
- Sherman Township Hall, 64962 Balk Rd.
The St. Joseph County Election Commission, at its Feb. 9 meeting, approved a consolidation of some precincts for May 2’s special election. According to the minutes from that meeting, voters in Leonidas Township will be voting at the Mendon Township Hall, and Fabius Township and Mottville Township voters will vote at the Constantine Township Hall.
The Constantine Public Schools district will ask voters for bond that would go toward fixing the roofs on both the high school and middle school buildings, which have seen leaking and flooding problems over the past several years, including three reports of leaking at the high school alone this school year.
Voters in Constantine, Fabius, Florence, and Mottville townships, as well as Mason, Newberg and Porter townships in Cass County will vote on this measure.
If approved by voters, according to Superintendent Joe Holloway, there would be no millage increase, and the district would refinance its original bond from 2002, which falls off in 2029, to generate the money. The bond is projected to generate $3.9 million in funds, all within the first year, all of which would go to repairing the roofs of both buildings. The maximum number of years the bonds may be outstanding for is six years, which lines up with the falling off the 2002 bond.
During a community meeting back in March, Holloway said if there’s money left over, the district would use any remaining bond funds to fix the roof on the Constantine Tech building. If there is not enough money from the bond to cover the high school and middle school projects, money would come out of the general fund.
It is the third time Constantine has gone after a bond project in the last two years, each one failing by wider and wider margins. Holloway described the proposal during the March community meeting as “needs, not wants.”
“When we looked at some of the things, bare bones, that we absolutely need to have – not wants, but needs – the roof on this building and the roof on the middle school were the two that came back,” Holloway said. He also mentioned that, in his estimation, it may be the final time the district could go to voters where there would be no proposed millage increase in a bond proposal.
According to the proposal language, the school district does not expect to borrow from the State to pay debt service on the bonds, and that proceeds cannot be used for teacher, administrator or employee salaries, or other operating expenses. The school district does not expect to borrow from the State to pay debt service on the bonds.
In Centreville, the school district will be asking for a 0.8 mill net increase in its millage to fund various projects in the district, including an HVAC project at the junior/senior high school, a new roof on the high school, and additions to the elementary and junior/senior high schools, including a new multipurpose building for athletics and a new cafeteria for the elementary school.
Superintendent Chad Brady said work would be done in three phases over the course of the project, and that the bond would last for approximately 14 years.
Voters in Lockport, Nottawa, Sherman, and Florence townships will be deciding the fate of Centreville’s millage request.
The third proposal voters in Mendon, Leonidas and Park townships will be considering is a millage renewal proposal for the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency (KRESA). The agency is asking for a 1.5 mill increase in their service region for six years from 2023 to 2028 to provide operating funds to “enhance other state and local funding for local school district operating purposes.” The funds projected to be generated would be approximately $14,044,867, with funds disbursed to a number of Kalamazoo County school districts.
Despite most of the school districts affected being in Kalamazoo County, some districts’ service areas do dip slightly into St. Joseph County, necessitating the inclusion of the KRESA renewal on the ballot.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@threeriversnews.com.