Work on Oswego’s second high school site is expected to pick up speed after voters overwhelmingly approved a $155 million construction bond issue. Nearly 60 percent of voters in Oswego Community School District 308 backed the bond request, which will help pay for the second high school and six other new schools in the next five years. Architectural plans are set and preliminary work has begun on a 2,400-student high school site near Wolf’s Crossing and Harvey Roads. Official closing on the property is set for next month.
With about 99 percent of the vote counted, the referendum item had 7,255 votes–or 58 percent–in favor, while 5,219 voted against it.
“I think it’s a testament to the community,” District 308 Supt. David Behlow said. “Even in hard economic times, children are the No. 1 priority.”
Behlow credited efforts by a coalition of volunteers with helping secure passage. “We had a large grass-roots volunteer effort by parents, teachers, business owners, staff members, grandparents and other concerned people,” he said. “We clearly demonstrated the need, and we were able to communicate and inform that need.”
The second high school will cost about $65 million and is expected to open by 2005. Funds from bond sales also will be used to build a $25 million junior high school by 2006 and five new elementary schools.
Other schools will be upgraded. Land may also be acquired for a third high school.
Local homeowners will pay an additional $158 a year in taxes on a home with a $200,000 market value, according to projections.
The new schools are needed to handle an influx of students that is expected to nearly double enrollment from the current 8,720 to more than 15,000 by 2007-08.
Up to 13,000 new housing units are expected to be built soon throughout the 68-square-mile district.
