Published: October 17, 2007 10:27 am      

Superintendent outlines school bond plans

EDMOND — With a school bond initiative coming up Dec. 11, the Edmond Public School District is hopeful community members will OK the $28.9 million that is being asked for in part for additions and renovations to buildings throughout the district.

To tell more about the bond projects, Superintendent David Goin was guest speaker at the Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday. Goin told chamber members that “excellence in the Edmond School District is due to a dynamic and supportive economy.”

Bond projects include adding a working kitchen and renovation at Northern Hills Elementary, $4.7 million; an addition to the new elementary, Centennial, $2.2 million; an addition to Chisholm, $3.6 million; an addition to Charles Haskell, $2 million; Clyde Howell addition, $2 million; and road improvements at Cross Timbers, $300,000.

In the middle schools, $3.9 million has been earmarked for renovation and addition at Sequoyah Middle School and remodeling the auditorium at Memorial High School has been estimated at $3.5 million.

The Technology Plan has $2.5 million set aside, transportation, $900,000; roofs, $900,000; school safety and security, $100,000 and athletic/fine arts equipment/library media and science equipment, $900,000.

Site improvements at the AgEd Barn are estimated at $400,000 while $1 million will be set aside for land purchase for a future school site.

“The bulk of our growth is happening in the elementary schools,” Goin said, “but we foresee that growth going on up through the middle schools and then high schools in the future.”

If the population growth remains the same, plans include the addition of both a middle school as well as a high school sometime within the next 10 years. Edmond now has a population of 74,000, but city projections say by 2011, there will be 79,145 residents here. The school population has grown from 17,878 in 2002 to 19,928 this year.

Freshman academies are being built at each of the high schools to help ninth-grade students with a successful transition to high school.

“This is a school-within-a-school concept,” Goin said, “and with it we hope to maximize high school offerings while we grow schools while at the same time providing increased attention to the most at-risk student population.”

Goin also told of the Pre-Engineering Academy where a student spends half of each day at a school site and the other half at the Francis Tuttle Portland Campus taking college prep courses that introduce engineering fields including civil and electrical engineering while utilizing facilities and business connections of the CareerTech.

Kay Martin, CEO of Francis Tuttle Vocation School, which sponsored the luncheon, told chamber members that CareerTech brings $2 billion to the Oklahoma economy each year.

On the senior level there are 70 students enrolled in the Professional Internship Program. Students spend 80-100 hours with a mentor on-site as well as participating in a weekly school-based seminar class.

“This program helps tie relevance of educational preparation to career preparation,” Goin said.

Goin also shared selected student honors and achievements as well as faculty and school accomplishments.



pmiller@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 171