PARK TWP., MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – West Ottawa will attempt to do this coming May what Saugatuck failed to do last August.
The board of the Lakeshore’s largest school district by student enrollment on Monday night approved language for a May 7 ballot proposal that will ask voters to approve a 98 million-dollar bond request without any increase in the current millage rate. The money would go towards a number of improvements, most notably the construction of a new elementary school to accommodate students living east of US-31, a new Performing Arts Center, and a new athletic stadium to replace Panther Stadium, which sits on the campus of Macatawa Bay Middle School, which used to be the district’s High School.
In a statement, board President Lynn Rutan said that the decision came “after an enormous amount of work” by district officials, including a number of public forums where, “We listened very carefully to what was being said.” The district also cited polling claiming that 73 percent of residents would be in favor of such a bond, which was initially set at 170 million dollars before being paired down.
West Ottawa voters five years ago approved a 90 million-dollar bond proposal and school Superintendent Tom Martin said that the district “is in a position to seek another bond now because of an improving economy, aggressively paying down that debt, and tightening the district’s financial belt as much as possible without harming the education that students receive.”
In May, voters in the Saugatuck school district rejected a 50.7 million-dollar bond request that would, in part, expand Saugatuck High School. A parent and community survey conducted after that defeat gave district officials hope that another bond proposal of a smaller scale, perhaps to be on that same May 7 ballot, could possibly pass.
