Colton eyes revised school bond proposal

With an eye on working more community input into the proposed remodeling of the Colton school, committee members gathered Wednesday to discuss that input.

Colton/Uniontown citizens met twice last month and gave the school administration suggestions for the project which initially had an overall cost of $10.2 million.

The public voted down the proposed $5.2 million bond in November.

The school is gathering public opinion on the bond proposal in order to have it on the ballot April 26.

Superintendent Nate Smith said the capital projects committee will review all the comments made by citizens during the two meetings. The committee will then develop a revised proposal.

Citing the higher property tax burden, many citizens proposed cutting down the scale and cost of the proposal.

“Hopefully from our meeting on Wednesday we’ll have some new project goals,” Smith said. “From there, we’ll start determining what the new project will look like.”

Smith said they’ll be taking a close look at ways to reduce the cost.

“That was one driving factor of the meetings was to look at cost,” Smith said.

The $5.2 million bond proposal which failed to pass in November would have cost an estimated $3.23 per $1,000 of assessed property value. So an owner with a home worth $100,000 would have had to pay an extra $323 per year.

The school district seeks to qualify for a $5.08 million matching grant through a modernization program conducted by the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Total cost of the remodeling in the first proposal was $10.2 million.