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The Bartlesville Public Schools Board of Education discussed the next bond issue at its virtual meeting Monday evening.

 

This would come on the heels of a very successful bond election in 2019  where voters approved $17,915,000 for projects that included: 

 

Technology: Extend the successful districtwide Chromebooks initiative through the 2022-23 school year while replacing decade-old electronic whiteboards in all elementary school classrooms with bright touchscreen panels.

 

STEM/Vo-Ag: Build a classroom/shop for the new vocational agriculture program and refresh the K-12 STEM devices and equipment to keep that award-winning program up-to-date.

 

Maintenance and Facilities: Replace climate control systems and elevators that are over 50 years old, along with many other maintenance needs at our school sites, which are 34 to 101 years of age. Also replace the 65-year-old pressbox so it can finally serve community needs, with about 1/3 of its cost paid by private funds.

 

Safety: Extend past safety enhancements which have proven to work, including more cameras, updated entry kiosks, improved doors and locks, and safer pedestrian crossings.

 

Transportation: Replace all buses that are over a decade old to further increase the bus fleet's efficiency and reliability.

 

The preliminary discussion on Monday was very general with only a few components at this time which includes annual funding for operations, internal requests and an ag center.

 

Superintendent Chuck McCauley brought up the idea of a new running track for the high school and acquiring some land from the city across the street from the high school near the pathfinder for the Ag Center that could potential be used for holding farm animals for students to study,

 

The points presented had no pricetag Monday night as more discussions and ideas will be brought forth in the next couple of months.

 

As for now, the board is looking at the May 17, 2021 meeting to vote on the resolution of the proposed bond issue with a target of an August 10, 2021 election date.

 

See the presentation here