PETOSKEY — The Public Schools of Petoskey Board of Education recently approved placing a bond on the November ballot centered around school and student safety.
If approved, the bond would fund necessary upgrades to the district’s facilities, including to security cameras, fire alarms, building entrances and more.
The bond would include a .85 mill. This means for every $1,000 of tax-assessed value a homeowner has, they would have to pay 85 cents.
Superintendent Jeff Leslie said that even before he joined the district in August 2022, school safety was a concern for many students and families. A full facility assessment was conducted last fall to see what areas need to be improved.
Even before the district got the facilities assessment report back from Navigate 360, the shooting at Michigan State University in February brought safety and security concerns back to the forefront.
“That really heightened the awareness that we’ve got to make sure that we’re doing something here in Petoskey to keep our students and staff safe,” Leslie said.
The bond proposal is the same amount that was approved for the Petoskey football stadium, meaning the renewal of the bond proposal would not increase the millages any more than people are already paying.
Leslie said the renewal would give the district a little more than $18 million in funds to help increase safety measures at each of the schools in the district.
He added that the district is asking for the bond proposal because the necessary safety upgrades are “beyond what we could do with the sinking fund.”
“There’s just no way that we could address all of these concerns in a timely fashion,” he said.
Leslie said the district usually gets about $2.5 million a year from the sinking fund, but that money is also needed for things like sidewalks, roofs, parking lots and other necessary maintenance items.
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The district worked with TowerPinkster, an architecture and engineering firm, to determine how much everything would cost the district and come up with a plan for security upgrades.
Upgrades in the high school are expected to cost around $4.5 million; around $2.3 million for the middle school; and between $2.1 million and $3.6 million for each elementary school. The Spitler Administration building is expected to require $200,000 in upgrades.
The bond proposal will be on the Nov. 7 ballot.
—Contact reporter Karly Graham at[email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at@KarlyGrahamJRN.
