By Jeff Mullin Senior Writer

This is the third in a series looking at projects included in an Enid Public Schools 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.

Just as the alphabet begins with A and you can’t count to 10 without starting at one, so any discussion of recent improvements to Enid Public Schools must begin with Eisenhower Elementary School.

“Eisenhower really is where the story begins,” said Amber Fitzgerald, school/community relations director for EPS.

In December 2001, Enid voters overwhelmingly approved the extension of a one-quarter cent sales tax to fund improvements to Eisenhower. The issue passed with nearly an 81 percent majority.

The sales tax extension provided $700,000 which, combined with $130,000 from EPS, expanded and remodeled Eisenhower, which now sits within the gates of Vance Air Force Base.

With the prospect of another Base Realignment and Closure Commission round on the horizon earlier this decade, a study was conducted of how Enid schools compared to those in towns whose military bases Vance was believed to be competing with.

“When we looked at test scores, academics, course offerings and extracurricular activities, we were consistently at the top of the pack, but we were not in terms of building facilities,” Fitzgerald said.

The 2001 tax vote spelled the end of eight portable classrooms that formerly housed most of the school’s students.

Roberta Nehring, a sixth-grade teacher at Eisenhower, has few fond memories of the old portables.

“Probably the biggest concern of all was going in and out between classes in the rain, in the snow,” Nehring said.

The portable classrooms, Nehring said, were somewhat less than energy efficient.

“Our air conditioner could never keep it cool,” she said. “It would be approximately five degrees cooler than it was outside. It got really bad.”

The sound of planes flying overhead was good news for Vance’s mission of training the next generation of military pilots, but bad news for Eisenhower students trying to learn in portable classrooms.

“You had to stop teaching when the airplanes flew over,” Nehring said.

The new classrooms, besides helping keep children out of the elements and protecting them from excessive airplane noise, are larger and better lit than the portables.

“They allow children more space, more movement,” said Polly Maxwell, Eisenhower’s principal. “They allow teachers to create learning areas where children can be up and around.”

“They are quiet, clean and inside,” Nehring said. “You feel like a human again.”

The funds approved in 2001 brought Eisenhower three new classrooms, new restrooms, renovation of existing restrooms, new flooring, new windows, heating and cooling upgrades, ceiling and lighting upgrades, termite control, plus new computers and buses. In addition the school received new carpet, a fresh paint job, new storage cabinets, bulletin boards, chalkboard insets and masonry work.

“People need to know their monies were well-spent, were used wisely,” Maxwell said.

Despite the fact Eisen-hower now sits within Vance’s fences, Maxwell stressed it still is an Enid school.

“I want the community to remember this is an Enid school,” Maxwell said. “This is a community school, and we serve students in the community as well.”

Because of the 2001 improvements, no facility needs for Eisenhower were addressed in the 2003 bond issue and sales tax proposal. That vote, which approved $26.2 million in all, brought new buses and computers to Eisenhower.

Major projects included in the $11.5 bond issue vote coming up Dec. 11 are: A new Garfield Elementary School with 23 classrooms, library, lab and more; continued renovations at Coolidge, Monroe, Taft and Glenwood elementary schools, Emerson Junior High School and Enid High School; continued renovations at Hoover Elementary School and a cafeteria at Adams Elementary School; exterior renovations at multiple sites around the district; technology and buses.

Eisenhower will be included only in the technology and bus portion of the Dec. 11 vote.

If approved, the Dec. 11 bond issue would increase property taxes by 3.9 percent. Someone who pays $500 in property taxes would see an increase of less than $20 per year.