GLADSTONE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Voters in the Gladstone Area Public Schools district rejected two bond proposals on the May 6 ballot. Now, administrators are looking at other options to make the district’s goals a reality.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” said Superintendent Jay Kulbertis. “We had a lot of people that really put a lot of time, energy, and effort into this, but in our current turbulent economic times, we understand the message that we’re getting from our community.”
If passed, the bond proposals would have allowed the district to build additional multi-use facilities at the high school and Cameron Elementary—where the gymnasium currently doubles as a cafeteria—and update security systems, parking lots, and playgrounds. Because the district’s most recent millages are set to be paid off next year, the proposals also would have resulted in an extension of the existing millage rate rather than an increase.
“We really thought this was an opportunity to not ask for more but just a continuation of the same,” Kulbertis said, “but they voted how they had to vote.”
One proposal received 44.08% voter support, while the other received 41.68% support. Registered voter turnout was low at 26%, which Kulbertis believes was a factor in the outcome. He says the district tried to boost that number ahead of the election.
“When we had done all the projections, we really felt that if we could motivate enough people to hit 30% of registered voters, we would have a successful ‘yes’ vote,” said the superintendent. “The reality of it is, people are struggling financially right now. There’s also a lot of uncertainty about prices in the future and jobs in the future. We don’t blame folks for having to take a look at how they’re paying their bills.”
Kulbertis does not foresee the district asking voters to support another millage in the near future. However, he says without a millage, it’s going to take a lot more work to figure out how to get as many of these projects done as possible in an affordable manner.
“This would’ve enabled us to put all of that work into the design and the execution,” he said. “Now, we’re going to have to break everything up into a thousand different pieces and figure out the funding for each of those pieces and then the logistics and execution. We still would love to do all of those things. Realistically, some of them just might be out of our means because of how much they would cost, so we’ll have to look at what’s the next more affordable option?”
Kulbertis says doing that work is vital to giving Gladstone students the best possible educational experience.
“I think we need to look at identifying which projects have our highest priority,” he said. “How do we then aggressively go after grant funds or other partnerships to start to chip away at that and really send the message to our community that, ‘Even if this wasn’t in the budget, we still need to move some of these projects forward because it’s what our kids deserve’? Things will go more slowly, but this isn’t an excuse for us not to continue to do great things for kids. It’s just another obstacle in the road that we’re going to have to get over.”
Kulbertis thanks advocacy group Brighter Braves Future for promoting the bond proposals and hosting several informational events for the public ahead of the election. He says Gladstone Area Public Schools looks forward to developing its relationship with Brighter Braves Future in the years to come.
To see the full results of Tuesday’s election, click here.
