COMMUNITY

School bond election results certified

Tara Melton
Alamogordo Daily News
Alamogordo resident Don Thorp waits to vote on the Alamogordo Public Schools bond election on Tuesday afternoon. The bond ultimately passed by 785 votes to 203.

The Otero County Clerk's Office certified on Thursday the results of the bond elections for Alamogordo Public Schools and Tularosa Municipal Schools.

The special school bond elections were held Tuesday.

According to the official canvass, the $20 million general obligation bond for Alamogordo Public Schools passed. Out of 21,586 total eligible voters, 988 Alamogordo residents voted in the 2016 special school bond election. Of the 988 voters, 785 participants voted in favor of the bond and 203 voted against it.

"Thank you to all of you who voted for the general obligation school bond," said APS Superintendent Adrianne Salas. "Your support will ensure an environment that is safe and that will enhance learning."

Data from County Clerk Denise Guerra states 4.5 percent of voters voted on Tuesday. This is lower than the 6.7 percent of voters in 2012 when Alamogordo residents took to the polls to decide the bond that would ultimately build Desert Star Elementary School.

Major projects under this bond include the combination of Oregon and Heights Elementary schools, both of which were built in the 1950s, into a new facility at the Heights location as well as a complete rebuild of Chaparral Middle School, which was built in 1961.

APS will combine Heights and Oregon Elementary Schools into one school and build a new facility on the Heights property now that the bond was passed by voters.
Oregon Elementary School will be one of the schools in the district that benefits from the bond election. APS officials hope to combine Oregon and Heights Elementary into one school now that the bond has passed.

"We will take the Oregon/Heights (project) to the state in July," Salas said.

The rebuilding of Chaparral Middle School is scheduled to be started in 2017-2018. Also under the bond, a number of others schools in the district that would receive exterior renovation and repairs as well as security packages. These schools include Academy Del Sol, Buena Vista Elementary, Holloman Middle, La Luz Elementary, Mountain View Middle, North Elementary and Sierra Elementary.

"We're excited about being able to move forward with these projects," Salas said.

According to the official canvass, the $2.5 million general obligation bond for Tularosa Municipal Schools passed. Out of 3,608 total eligible voters, 125 Tularosa residents voted in the 2016 special school bond election. Of the 125 voters, 110 participants voted in favor of the bond and 15 voted against it.

"We are really just so happy that our voters continued to support our schools and in turn this supports our entire community," said Tularosa Superintendent Brenda Vigil. "We're very pleased that we saw the support for our bond issue and that we'll be able to do projects we wouldn't have been able to do without the support of our voters."

The track field at Tularosa High School will be replaced, along with a number of other upgrades, now that the bond was passed by voters on Feb. 2.

Projects under this bond include the renovation of the Tularosa High School track and cover replacement of goal posts and the scoreboard at Tularosa High School. The bond will also repair or replace the parking lot of Tularosa Elementary School and other school sites as needed, upgrading the district's cooling and heating, remodeling current facilities as well as upgrading technology and furniture at all facilities.

"We're going to be starting the track as soon as we finish graduation in May," said Vigil. "Hopefully, we will be all done by football season with that project. We're also planning on starting on the elementary school parking lot this summer. I want to get these done when the students aren't in school."