The Lamphere school district intends to overhaul their entire district if voters approve a proposed school improvement bond in May.

The 30-year, $85 million proposed bond will result in an estimated tax increase of 4.15 mills ($4.15 per $1,000 taxable value), which means homeowners would pay an additional $207.50 annually ($17.29/month) for a home valued at $100,000 or $415.00 annually ($34.58/month) for a home valued at $200,000.

The last bond proposal approved by Lamphere residents was in 1997 and was paid off seven years ago.

“We have been very responsible with taxpayer dollars and our sinking fund will not cover the cost of what is needed in a district with buildings and infrastructure as old as ours,” said Superintendent Dale Steen.

The district is aware of the impact of a new fee added to taxpayer bills, but said there is no other option for the amount of work needed.

“In the State of Michigan the only way that we are able to do the amount of repairs that we need to do is through a bond issue, but Lamphere has been debt free for seven years and we are the only district in the county that can say that,” said Steen.

Katie Cronk, assistant superintendent for finance and business, is asking residents to take a deeper look into their home values before making a decision on the bond.

“A lot of our taxpayers have been in their homes for a very long time, so their taxable value is actually a lot less than half of their market value, so we encourage our residents to look at their tax bill and look at taxable value when they are calculating how this will affect them as a taxpayer,” said Cronk. “Per our assessor’s office the average taxable value of a resident is $67,000.”

The buildings are 47 to 69 years old.

The list of projects that would be paid for with the bond money is:

• Filling in the pool area at Page Middle School, which closed in 2013, to create a dedicated districtwide robotics space

• Constructing an auxiliary gym at Lamphere High School to accommodate more student programs

• Enhancing music and art classrooms at the middle school and high school and purchasing new musical instruments

• Building a storage facility at the transportation center

• Replacing worn-out and early childhood playground equipment at all elementary schools

• Replacing paving and reconfiguring parking lots and loops. Lamphere has over 1,110,000 sq. ft. of pavement throughout the school district

• Replacing roofing. Lamphere maintains seven school facilities with 640,000 sq. ft. of roofing. The total square footage of roof replacement included in the May 6 bond proposal is 288,000 sq. ft.

The district operates one high school, one middle school, four elementary schools, an early childhood and administrative center, a countywide center program called Lamphere Center, and a maintenance and transportation center.

“This is a generational bond that we are doing here, but we don’t go out for bonds or look into bonds unless we need to,” said Steen. “This is the only way we can do this and there is no other way to generate these kinds of funds.”