March 29, 2024

Baxter CSD voters approve bond to fund school renovations

Ballot measure passes at 87.47 percent

Improvements to the Baxter Community School are officially coming.

Residents within the Baxter Community School District voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to approve a bond measure to provide funding to a $6 million school renovation project, allowing improvements in several areas of the building’s classrooms and parking lot.

The vote passed 87.47 percent to 12.53 percent, according to unofficial results from the Jasper County Auditor’s Office. Of the 415 votes cast, 363 voter’s said “yes” to the bond, and 52 “no” votes were cast. A total of 65 absentee ballots were received by the postmark deadline and included in Tuesday night’s tally.

BCSD Superintendent Mickolyn Clapper said she cannot overstate how excited she is to see the bond vote approved and is looking forward to the next steps of the renovation project.

“It’s just really exciting,” Clapper said Tuesday night. “People, I think, are just feeling really positive about this school building project.”

As of 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Baxter Community Center had about 54 people come in to vote, as well as more than 57 voters who either voted early as Jasper County Courthouse or submitted an absentee ballot. Donna Akins, one of three election officials at the voting location in Baxter, said the bond for the school renovation project was the one and the only issue to cast a vote for on the ballot.

“There’s a lot of interest in this,” Akins said. “We have registered a few first-time voters today who have never voted before, so we took care of that too.”

One voter at the Baxter Community Center and owner of the Baxter-based Revive Salon, Janell Travis, said the two of about 1,100 residents has a really good sense of community. She said seeing senior citizens who don’t have kids voting “yes” is “awesome.”

“I’m born and raised in this town. If we don’t have a school, we have nothing,” Travis said. “I think Baxter has a bright future, so it’s important that our school stays strong.”

Another Baxter resident and 1978 BCSD graduate Mickey Spieker said she was voting for the future of her town.

“I voted yes because I want to save my town and my school,” Spieker said. “If we lose our school, we lose our town. Look around at all the other places that have lost their schools. There, pretty much, isn’t anything there.”

One of the bond committee members advocating for the renovation project, Brock Hansen, voted with his wife Tuesday afternoon. Hansen said he has three children currently in the school and another who graduated from BCSD. He also said the tax factor doesn’t scare him away from voting yes, since it’s approximately $18 out of $100,000.

“The school is still functional with what’s currently there,” Hansen said. “However, our old bond is expiring and now is the time to push forward with the new one. Our open-enrollment numbers are staying consistent.”

The bond will institute a slight levy rate increase but is estimated to have little change taxpayers, since payments for the K-12 school’s last bond repayment ended in 2018. The bond will give the school district the funding for the renovations district officials say their school needs.

Improvements will go toward the school’s classrooms, laboratories within the science classrooms, a green screen classroom for multi-media production, special education classrooms and the principal and secretary’s office. The student parking lot will also be redesigned, allowing parking spots to be angled instead of straight to allow up to 120 parking spaces to be added.

Clapper has spent a significant amount of time campaigning around Baxter to rally support. She held “Coffee with Dr. Clapper” events with a number of local businesses and churches. She, along with the BCSD board, have also held two town hall meetings to educate community members on the renovations.

“I think it’s the right time for this to happen. We’re just really excited,” Clapper said. “We’re just so excited to have this finally be here. We’re ready to move on to get ready for the next steps with it. I think it will be a really positive thing for our community, and for our school.”

Contact Orrin Shawl at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or at oshawl@newtondailynews.com