Residents of Mount Vernon are voting today on a $108 million bond issue that would pay for renovations of the city”™s aging schools.
The Mount Vernon City School District will renovate 15 schools and the administrative building if the referendum is approved.
The budget includes $90.5 million for fixing buildings and adding features, $8.7 million for athletic fields, $8 million for wiring and ventilation, and $1.1 million for asbestos removal.
The budget classifies about $41 million in projects as support for the district”™s “academic vision.” Elementary schools, for example, would be reconfigured for pre-kindergarten programs. Three buildings would be adapted for specialty high school programs: science, technology, engineering, arts and math at A.B. Davis (now a middle school); performing arts at Thornton High School; and career and technical education at Mount Vernon High School.
The new debt would add about $84 a year in taxes for twenty years on a house worth $315,000, according to the school district. Taxes would not increase this school year. Then the additional tax burden would peak in the 2020-2021 school year at $156 on a $315,000 house.
The school district has about 8,500 students. It is the largest employer in Mount Vernon, with about 1,322 full-time and 323 part-time employees. Its facilities, on average, are more than 65 years old. The original Graham Elementary School, for instance, was built in 1897.
