BETTENDORF, Iowa--The Bettendorf Community School District will ask voters to consider a $30 million bond issue on December 11.
If approved the bond would help pay for a number of projects to improve school security, create and expand science, STEM and music classroom space and improve existing athletic facilities in the district.
"We're competing with Davenport, they are doing facility work, Pleasant Valley is building news schools and growing, so we need to be competitive as well,” says Superintendent Mike Raso.
If approved potential projects financed by the bond include:
- A new college and career center constructed in the old high school auditorium
- New science and STEM classroom space for the middle school
- New front entrance ways at Hoover and Paul Norton elementary schools
"We have the secure entrances, but they are not connected directly to the office and so where our other building you have to be buzzed in and go into the office before you can get into the main building," says Raso.
Raso says the district will need $60 million dollars to complete all the proposed projects. The bond money would cover half the cost, the other half will come from the Scott County one percent sales tax.
If the bond is approved property tax levies could go up as much as $1.55 per thousand, that’s about ten dollars a month on a $150,000 home.
The district will hold public meetings on the referendum in November.
