A bond on the ballot Tuesday for an Upper Peninsula school would provide almost $4 million for improvements.
Some of those improvements include new technology and buses and replacing the aging windows and a leaky roof at Rudyard Area Schools.
Holes in the roof have led to leaking in the school.
Voters shut down two previous bond requests.
Now, the school hopes this bond request has what it takes to pass.
9 & 10’s Blayke Roznowski and photojournalist Erin Malone found out what voters are saying about the latest bond request.
"It’s really important to get the roof fixed so that the students are just in an environment where they’re learning and where they have the best possible chance to have a full education without any distractions," Rudyard Area Schools business manager Deanna Mayer said.
The leaking roof at Rudyard Area Schools is just one of several improvements an almost $4 million bond would go towards.
If passed, the bond would cost the average person about $6 more a month.
"The day that they closed the school down because there was like rain in rooms," student voter Taylor MacDowell said.
"It was like pouring in some of the classrooms," student voter Tiffany MacDowell said. "It was pretty bad."
The school says the roof is in desperate need of being replaced.
There’s extensive damage and when it rains they need garbage cans to catch the rain falling.
"Something needs to be done because the kids can’t have buckets in their classroom and walk around buckets in the hallways," Mayer said.
The bonds have sparked controversy in the past because of what some say are unnecessary improvements, like updating the track and a new entrance to the pool.
While many community members say they’ll vote yes now, there’s still some concern.
"I would really, really hate to see this one have to close because of something we all could’ve fixed," wife of a local business owner Alivia Howland said. "They’re not really thinking about the businesses either. $200 here for somebody is, you know, $2000 here for us and in the winter time we don’t make that much money."
© 2023 - 910 Media Group
