- A new Bennington bond issue has made some significant changes from the previous bond issue in 2022 to try and build another high school.
- Parents Megan Detjens and Erin Kloke talk about their viewpoints of the new bond.
- A special mail-in election will take place on March 12th. And if the bond passes, the new school would be ready here by June 2027
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
A year ago, 67% of Bennington voters rejected a bond issue that would support school district growth. I’m Jill Lamkins, your Bennington neighborhood reporter on 180th and Military Road, where the new high school would go, if the updated bond proposal passes.
This is Bennington High School, and right now it's the only high school in town. By 2027, it will be 17% over capacity.
It's something that worries parents like Megan Detjens who has three kids in the district.
"To me having overpopulated classrooms takes away some of those opportunities for my own kids and everybody else's children," she said.
Crowding is just one worry, but Megan says she's heard parents like her have other concerns if a new high school isn't built.
"They're worried about safety; they're worried about opportunities maybe not necessarily being there for their children."
But there is a cost that comes with building a new school and that's something the superintendent Dr. Aaron Plas looked at when re-evaluating a new bond proposal.
Last year’s bond would've cost taxpayers $150 million compared to the new proposal that's valued at $119 million.
"Bennington's in a situation where we are a higher taxed district and so they wanted to make sure that the levy impact was as low as it possibly could be and so we were able to reduce the levy impact by 51% on this one compared to the previous one," said Dr. Plas.
Reducing the tax levy was something Erin Kloke, another Bennington mom was thankful for.
But she still has some concerns over the new proposal.
"The plot of land where the new high school would be built is one mile from where the current building is sitting so were going to have two high schools within one square mile," said Erin.
And while she doesn't agree with everything, Erin does think it'll be a close vote.
"I don't think it's going to be a blowout one way or the other. I don't think if it doesn't pass it's going to be by a 67% margin this time but it's going to be close."
A special mail-in election will take place on March 12th. And if the bond passes, the new school would be ready here by June 2027. At 180th and Military Road, I’m your Bennington neighborhood reporter, Jill Lamkins.
