Wednesday, March 1, 2000
Milford school bond issue
BY SARA J. BENNETT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIAMI TOWNSHIP — If voters approve a 5.3-mill bond issue, students of Milford Exempted Village School District will get out of classrooms fashioned from mobile homes, closets and basement storage spots.
They'll move into a new middle school, a bigger junior high and classrooms that finally meet state minimum size standards.
The bond issue — the only school initiative on Clermont County's ballot — will set in motion a $53 million plan to handle crowding and expected growth in the district.
The 28-year bond issue would cost the owner of a $100,000 house $162 a year. .
The money would cover a plan designed by a school board-appointed group of residents, teachers and staff that studied the district's seven buildings for 18 months.
The group recommended building a middle school for grades 4 through 6, adding to the junior high school so it can hold grades 7 through 9, building three new gymnasiums, providing science and technology labs to children starting in grade 4, and increasing classroom sizes.
“Our current classroom size is about 30 to 50 percent smaller than the state recommends,” said Bob Nelson, a parent and co-chair of the bond issue campaign. “More than 300 students are educated in temporary modular classrooms every day.”
With 500 students expected to join the district's current 5,600 enrollment over the next 10 years, the need for more space is urgent, Superintendent John Frye said.
“We just simply don't have any space left to steal,” he said. “We've stolen pantry space, closet space, basement storage space. ... We don't have anything left to take away from to make instructional space, and quite frankly that space is no longer acceptable.”
Support for the bond issue is generally positive, Mr. Nelson said, adding that the district now has no debt and has a history of paying off bonds early.
“Any time you have a tax levy, you'll find some sort of opposition, but really there's good support,” he said. “When they see pictures of the classrooms, when they understand the need, there is an overwhelming agreement that we've got just a tremendous need, and it's very urgent to get it fixed.”
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