In about two weeks Washington Community School District residents will decide whether to fund a middle school addition to the high school with $25 million in general obligation bonds.

The district is proposing to renovate the old part of the current high school and add four new additions: a two-story addition to the west side, a one-story addition to the renovated middle school wing, a new gymnasium, and a secure entryway for the middle school. As the district is coming off a bond issue, this proposal would not increase property taxes for homeowners, commercial, and agricultural properties, and Superintendent Willie Stone says the project is planned to commence in 2023 to give the district enough time to pass another referendum should this one fail. Stone shares how interaction would be between the high school and middle school students, “We’ll basically have two separate schools at one building. So we’ll be able to keep them apart when we want to, but there are great things that happen when we do peer helpers, things like that where we want our older kids to interact with our students and we want to be able to build leaders in our high school and then we also gain the benefit of those leaders working with our kids. So the interaction will happen when we want to, not all the time, so it’ll be a planned interaction.”

Absentee voting in person is open now at the Washington County Auditor’s Office through September 13th, and polls will be open Tuesday, September 14th from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. in the basement of the Washington County Courthouse and at the Brighton Town Hall. To hear more about the referendum, listen to a two-part Halcyon House Washington Page today and tomorrow on air and at kciiradio.com.