CENTRAL HIGH – Approval last week of a $6.16 million bond issue by patrons of Central High Public Schools ensures new space for agriculture, family and consumer science education, and STEM students.
The bond proceeds will finance construction of two new classrooms, one at the high school/middle school and another at the nearby elementary school, Supt. Kevin L. Dyes told Southwest Ledger.
Approximately 9,000 square feet of new floor space will be created, enabling the district to repurpose some existing space in district buildings, he said.
The revised bond issue was endorsed by 172 patrons, or 62.32% of the voters in the Feb. 13 special election, and was opposed by 104 patrons, or 37.68% of the voters.
The 276 voters constituted 19.22% of the 1,436 registered voters in the school district’s nine precincts: 910 in Stephens County, 519 in Comanche County, and 7 in a Grady County precinct.
“I’m excited and thrilled for our students and staff,” Dyes told the Ledger on Feb. 14. The new facilities will enhance the school and will “benefit our entire community.”
Proceeds from the sale of the bonds will be earmarked for several projects.
• A “career tech” center will be created on the campus. It will house a STEM classroom, an agriculture mechanics shop, and a new agriculture classroom to replace one that was constructed in the 1980s and “is not big enough,” Dyes said.
It will house a meat science lab, including a walk-in cooler/freezer. “We have students and a teacher who have an interest in this area,” Dyes said. Furthermore, “It won’t compete with Career Tech courses. We’re not going to compete with anybody, and it won’t have a ‘kill floor,’” he emphasized.
“Maybe during an ag event we can cut steaks and pork chops and cook them in the culinary arts kitchen” for the participants, Dyes said. “There’s a lot of potential there.”
The new facilities will contain a Family and Consumer Sciences culinary arts kitchen and classroom. “Some of our kids have gone to Oklahoma City for an education in that field and are now working in that industry,” the superintendent said.
• The football concession stand in the Agriculture Building will be renovated, and the existing agriculture classroom will be converted into a locker room and weight room. The district’s old ag building also serves as a bus barn “and will continue in that role” and also will be used for some storage, the superintendent said.
• A new Family and Consumer Sciences Education classroom will be created in the middle school. Because space is in short supply, an FCS teacher is conducting her classes in the faculty lounge, Dyes said.
• The new STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) classroom will be created because, “Our students have a lot of interest in computer technology and robotics,” Dyes said.
• Central High has two portable buildings: one housing pre-K and kindergarten classes, and the other is a fieldhouse and weight room. The latter portable building will be scrapped because the locker room and weight room will be relocated to the ag classroom in the Agriculture Building.
Tentative plans call for work on the architectural drawings to start on or about March 1, and will take approximately six months to complete, Dyes estimated. Groundbreaking is expected to occur “around the first of September” and construction will take about a year to complete, he said. School officials hope to occupy the new facilities in September 2025 “or around Christmastime” next year.
Joe D. Hall Construction of Elk City – currently building a new performing arts center for Marlow Public Schools – will be the contractor on the Central High project.
The district’s ad valorem millage levy this year is 35.1, or $35.10 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Approval of the bond issue won’t result in higher property taxes, Dyes said, because the new bonds will replace existing bonds that will be paid off this year and next year. The new bonds will be retired over a 10year period.
The earliest the new bonds will be issued is “July or after, depending on interest rates,” Dyes said.
Enrollment recovering, property values growing Enrollment K-12 at Central High Public Schools on Dec. 11 numbered 437 – exactly the same as in 2013-14, records reflect. Enrollment began to decline the next year and fell to 388 in school year 2020-21, but since then the student population count has recovered.
Property values in the district have steadily increased during the past decade: from $12.99 million in 2013-14 to $15.91 million in 2023--24. Much of that can be attributed to inflation but some is due to residential construction in the area, Dyes speculated.
The district started this school year with a little over half a million dollars in carryover funding, ledgers reflect.
The new bond issue is a scaled-down version of one that was submitted to the voters a year and a half ago.
Central High officials proposed a 26-year, $14.5 million bond issue to finance construction of a new elementary school to alleviate crowding; voters rejected the plan outright on Aug. 23, 2022, by a margin of 53.55% against versus 46.45% for. Approval of a school bond issue requires endorsement from a 60% supermajority.
Central High Public Schools are located a mile north of Oklahoma Highway 7, between Lawton and the Duncan Wye.