PORTAGE, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — A $155 million dollar bond proposal for Portage Public Schools will not appear on the August ballot.
During a virtual meeting on Monday the board of education decided to remove the measure asking to make building improvements to several schools, after a survey of residents revealed that it would most likely not pass.
Results showed only about 46% of survey respondents said they would vote yes on the proposal. About 1,350 people took the survey.
If it was put on the ballot and approved, the money would’ve been used to replace multiple elementary school buildings, some of which face aging infrastructure. Those include Haverhill, Woodland, Angling Road, Central, and Amberly elementary schools. The board agreed that now is not the time to attempt to pass this proposal.
Some of the reasons residents said they would it turn down were because they did not have enough information about the plan, it was too similar to the $144 million dollar bond approved back in 2015, and they were concerned that the plan costs were too high.
The district’s original meeting on this issue was scheduled for Monday, April 13th but had to be postponed on the calendar due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the stay at home order. The board held the meeting virtually on Monday thanks to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order which relaxed the requirements of public municipal meetings.
The full meeting can be found here.
