by Hunter Dawkins
With just over 2500 votes cast in Thursday’s $20 million bond issue to renovate the high school, Long Beach School District residents approved by over 62% from the unofficial results.
“This proves that Long Beach residents are about education,” said Long Beach School Board President Tim Pierce. “This total proves that our local citizens are behind the teachers and children.”
Superintendent Jay Smith believed that the voter turnout provided the clear view of what the public wanted. “With as high of the turnout was today, the voters have spoken and I don’t remember when Long Beach has had such a magnitude of votes when this was the only thing on the ballot.”
Dr. Smith stated that “Long Beach School District will begin to look into the bid process to begin our phase process soon and give different firms a good opportunity.”
Long Beach Mayor George Bass was pleased with the results, saying “a majority of people recognized that we need a new school and a safer school for our children.” Bass went on to claim, “when other schools use your school to indicate what you don’t want to be like, it’s a great indicator that we need to move forward.”
The newly-renovated high school will be built on the same footprint as the current high school, meaning the school will be built in a 5-phase project presented by the Long Beach School District. The scheduled date for completion would be 2021.
Unofficial results were 1577 voting for the bond, 944 against, equaling out to 62.5%, which surpassed the 60%+1 needed to pass.
