$870,000 BOND ISSUE FACES VOTERS IN KELLY

BENTON -- Property owners in the Kelly Scott County R-4 School District will be asked Tuesday to support an $870,000 bond issue to fund additional district facilities.

Because the general obligation bond issue will be voted on at a regularly scheduled municipal election, it requires a four-seventh's majority for passage, said Scott County Clerk Bob Kielhofner.

Tom Austin, chairman of a special advisory committee formed by the district to research the matter, named a variety of improvements that would be funded with the money.

Four classrooms and a multipurpose room for physical education and other special needs would be added, he said. The district's cafeteria will be expanded, he said, and the floor of the original Kelly High School gymnasium will be replaced.

A district brochure detailing the bond issue says the money also would be spent to replace the gymnasium bleachers, which are a safety hazard and beyond repair, and to pay for a heating system. The high school's heating system had to be replaced in December because of an unrepairable breakdown, it says.

The improvements would connect the existing high school with the neighboring junior high and elementary school, said Austin. The extra classrooms could be used for either high school or junior high students.

Additional facilities are partly needed due to a rise in district enrollment, says the brochure. It says every available space has already been used to construct new or renovated classrooms.

The brochure says the bond issue would mean a $13.83 tax increase on a home in the district that is assessed at the average valuation of $4,772.

The improvements being proposed are an outgrowth of the committee's research. Committee members researched the matter for seven months, said Austin.

Austin said: "This isn't something right off the top of the head. There's been a lot of research and investigation."

Austin said the advisory group is very supportive of the bond issue and "We just hope our school district family will see it the same way."