05/09/2007

Kingsley schools millage rejected

District officials to consider their next move

By Christine Finger

cfinger@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
Kingsley election worker Kay Naugle verifies voter registration in Paradise Township’s Precinct 1 Tuesday afternoon. Voters soundly rejected a proposed tax increase to pay for school expansion and improvements.

KINGSLEY — Voters in Kingsley Area Schools soundly rejected a proposed tax increase to pay for school expansion and improvements.

The district asked voters to approve a levy of 3 mills for the next 20 years to allow it to borrow $16.5 million. The proposal failed, with 912 votes against and 254 in favor, according to unofficial totals.

The new millage would have cost an additional $225 a year for a home with a taxable value of $75,000. The building project was part of a long-range master plan developed by a steering committee of community members.

Superintendent Lynn Gullekson said the tax increase would have helped remedy overcrowding in the growing Grand Traverse County school district located between Traverse City and Cadillac. The district needs to step back and contemplate its next step, he said.

"We're happy that a lot of people got out and voted. We would have liked to see a different result, obviously,” he said. "We don't really have a plan B. We thought we had a proposal that would address our needs at a minimal cost.”

Enrollment in Kingsley schools increased about 19 percent in the last decade. The student count is about 1,500 and projections predict gradual but steady growth in coming years.

Plans called for building a new middle school near the current high school that would house sixth through eighth grades. Four new classrooms would have been added to the high school on Kingsley Road, along with a new access road from the new middle and high school campus to M-113.

The second and third grades would have moved to the existing middle school building, and the elementary school would have housed pre-kindergarten through first grade students.

In 1999, voters approved 6.55 mills to build the district's new high school. Growth in property values has allowed the district to lower that millage to the current levy of about 4 mills.