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By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer
reporter@arkcity.net

A $35.8 million school bond issue was passed Tuesday by voters in the local school district. The "yes" votes outnumbered the "no" votes by 278 in the special mail-ballot election.

A total of 4,134 ballots were counted starting at noon at the Cowley County Clerk's Office in Winfield; 2,166 voted "yes," 1,888 voted "no," and there were 80 provisional ballots.

The provisional ballots will be canvassed Friday before the vote becomes official, said County Clerk and Election Officer Karen Brooks. They weren't counted initially because some signatures on the ballots didn't match the names on the register.

Even if all 80 provisional ballots are "no" votes, it probably wouldn't make a difference in the final outcome, a woman at the county clerk's office said today.

"It's a tremendous statement of support for education and for the entire community," USD 470 Superintendent Ron Ballard said of the election outcome.

He said it's tremendous that a community the size of Arkansas City supports education from kindergarten through high school through junior college.

"The foundation of a community is strong learning; this is good for the entire geographic area," Ballard said. "Our hope is that some of our students become teachers someday in our school district, and that we continue to grow."

School district spokeswoman Alisha Call said the election results "are very exciting for us and something that a lot of people put a lot of time into."

"We feel that's going to mean safer and more efficient schools for our kids," Call said.

City Manager Doug Russell commented on the election result Tuesday night. "That large of an investment in the community will be good for our economy locally," Russell said.

Ballard said now that the election is over, it's time to "roll up our sleeves" and get to work.

Though the bond issue passed, some of the projects that will be funded through local property taxes have been controversial, acknowledged a member of a citizens committee that supported the issue and campaigned to get it passed.

One point of controversy is a new football stadium that is to be built adjacent to Arkansas City High School. It will replace Curry Field in the downtown area. Total cost of the new stadium, parking area, seating, lighting, concessions and restrooms would be about $5.3 million.

Another point of controversy is whether IXL Elementary School should be extensively renovated since many of its students are bused from other parts of the city.

One suggestion that was made several weeks ago by former USD 470 Superintendent Jean Snell was that the district could consider building another elementary school in the south part of town instead of busing so many children to IXL.

Contacted this morning, Snell said at first that he had no comment on the results of the bond election.

"I just tried to make my opinion known," said Snell, a critic of the bond issue. "I'm not picking fights with people.

"When the fight's over, it's over."

The taxpayer cost will vary depending on the appraised value of a resident's home. For the owner of a $54,100 home -- the average home value for residents in USD 470 -- the cost would be $35.29 per year, school officials have said. That taxpayer cost would take into account state aid of 50 percent for the total project construction costs and interest on the bonds.

"It was closer than we'd like to have seen, but it won," said Steve Lungren, a member of the citizen's committee, of the election results. "We're excited."

Lungren said he believed those who voted in the election fell into three groups -- voters who fully supported the bond issue in its entirety; voters who believed some improvements needed to be made in the schools, but didn't support certain projects in the bond issue; and those who were against the issue.

"Some of those who believed we needed to do something on the issue, but were somewhat neutral voted yes, and some of this group voted no," Lungren said.

Lungren and other citizen committee members joined school administrators in an election watch Tuesday afternoon at the school district's main office, he said.

"When they started counting at noon, the board office kept tabs," he said. "Four to six of us met at the board office."

After the results were made known there was hand shaking and hugging, he said.

"It wasn't necessarily a celebration party," he said. "We have immediate pressing issues."

They include building the new football stadium because of problems with continued insurance coverage of an aging Curry Field.

Lungren said that members of a steering committee of 30 citizens who started looking into needed improvements for the schools in August 2006 looked long and hard at trying to save Curry Field.

"The group on that committee said 'Gee, let's keep Curry,'" he said. But eventually they determined it would be too costly to renovate the field.

Lungren said some of the school district's problem areas that the bond improvements will help solve include better infrastructure and student safety.

It seemed important to get to work on those issues now particularly because the state is paying 50 percent or more of the improvement costs, he said.

Ballard said that he had contacted the district's bond consultants to discuss current construction costs compared to cost estimates made earlier for the improvements plan.

"Overall, it came out pretty good," Ballard said. Though some costs had increased, such as the cost of copper which will be used for upgraded heating and air-conditioning systems, other costs such as the cost of artificial turf for the new stadium had decreased.

USD 470 officials have stressed that sports facilities represent only a fraction of the overall bond issue. Projects also include improvements made to all elementary schools, the middle school and the high school.

In addition to athletics, project areas include existing buildings, early childhood and technology.

Among all schools, the high school would have the highest price tag for improvements, $8.8 million.

Planned renovations for the high school are as follows: enlarge commons-cafeteria area and add connecting link to tech building, remodel and expand industrial-technical building and include district-wide print center, create new main south entry, add new fire alarm, replace auxiliary gym lighting, replace main and auxiliary gym bleachers, add vocal and instrumental music practice rooms and storage for music and art supplies, upgrade acoustics, relocate service drive north of industrial arts building, replace elevator.

Cost of improvements for the middle school would be about $4 million. They would include providing handicapped access to band, vocal and stage areas, upgrading handicapped access in auditorium, adding new lighting in gym and lobby, adding public restrooms to lobby, creating new entry and secure entrance lobby, adding a music classroom.

The most extensive renovation among the elementary schools would occur at IXL Elementary.

IXL's east-west wing facing the street would be demolished to provide an expanded and safer parking area for the school. The old wing would be replaced with a new 28,000-square foot building including three new early childhood classrooms.