By Tippi Rasp Staff Writer

This is the second in a series looking at projects included in an Enid Public Schools proposed bond issue election. The series continues daily through Dec. 9. Anyone wishing to submit questions about the proposal can e-mail them to trasp@enidnews.com.

On a counter in one corner of Tamra Tucker’s sixth-grade classroom sits a CD player beaming the soft sounds of bamboo flutes through the otherwise quiet classroom.

More than 20 students sit at desks around the room, working quietly on art projects.

“This sets our mood,” Tucker said.

It’s not a sight — or sound — anyone could have witnessed before the school district built a new addition at McKinley Elementary School and made improvements throughout the school in the 1700 block of West Broadway.

“The window units are so loud, you’re either shouting or you have to turn it off,” said teacher Tammy McElroy in 2003 before voters passed $1.47 million in improvements to the school.

But with a new addition, which includes a cafeteria and classrooms that formerly were held in portable buildings, those problems are history.

“Teachers have learned to appreciate their quiet space,” McKinley Principal Jan Robinson said.

Work approved by voters in 2003 at McKinley includes the new addition and renovations all around the school. One of the most significant is the dropped ceilings and lighting work in classrooms and hallways.

“This area was just a dungeon,” Robinson said recently while pointing out the improvements. “It’s just amazing to me what the lighting did. I think we got the best windows.”

New windows and central heating and air conditioning in the building also have contributed significantly to the school environment, she said.

“It makes all the difference in the world not having the air conditioning revved up,” she said.

In 2003

Enid Public Schools teamed with the city and asked voters for a combined $26.2 million bond issue and sales tax proposal that would meet immediate needs for the school district, provide technology upgrades and put the district on a bus replacement schedule.

Those proposals passed Feb. 11, 2003, and every school in the district has seen at least some improvements. About $14 million was secured to fund improvements at buildings, but only a portion of that has been spent, as construction and renovation continue at multiple sites on a phased plan.

School districts sell bonds in phases to keep property tax rates lower, and because the district can only incur so much bonded indebtedness at a time. Improvements under the 2003 measures are continuing, as secured funds become available.

Todd Earl, local businessman and chairman of the 2003 campaign, said four years ago school officials and bond issue committee members recognized the election measures were the “first in a number of steps necessary to address all of the facilities’ needs across the district.”

While some problems have arisen that increased the cost of a few of the projects funded by the 2003 election, Earl said school administrators have done an excellent job budgeting and making their dollars stretch.

Projects completed by the 2003 proceeds include additions and some renovations at Eisenhower, Hayes, Coolidge, McKinley and Monroe elementary schools, Emerson Junior High School, Lincoln Academy and Carver Education Center.

In 2007

Now school administrators, board members and a committee studying the improvements at EPS hope voters will approve two measures Dec. 11 that would continue what was started in 2003.

The school district is asking voters for a little more than $11.5 million to meet their goal in a Dec. 11 bond issue. The election includes two propositions that would address renovations, technology and keep the district on a bus replacement schedule.

Most important to school officials and school board members is the aspect of completing what they started in 2001 when they commissioned an overall facility study, board members and administrators have said.

The new measure would address many of the needs remaining at these schools and other projects in the district.

Many of those projects have been completed. Still others are in the works, but awaiting funding.

School officials hope, if approved Dec. 11, future bond funds will allow them to start on the rest of a list of needs that couldn’t be included in the first round of proposals because there was not enough bonding capacity and because of skyrocketing building and material costs over the last couple of years.

At what cost?

The current measures scheduled for the Dec. 11 election ballot would increase property taxes by 3.9 percent.

For example, someone who currently pays $500 in property taxes annually would see an increase of less than $20 a year. Someone who pays $1,000 annually in property taxes would see an increase of just less than $40 a year.

Besides a new Garfield Elementary School, other major projects in the upcoming measure include connecting hallways at Coolidge Elementary School and building additions at Hoover and Adams elementary schools.