By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
VICKSBURG — Voters in the Vicksburg Community Schools district will be one of three locally that will be seeking a continuation of millage funding in the May 5 election.
On the May 5 ballot, the district will be seeking a $64.135 million bond proposal, which would be done by continuing a 6.6-mill levy that has been in place since 2020, and would not include an increase in the tax rate. If the proposal is not passed, the rate would fall to 2.77 mills.
Funding from the renewal proposal would be used to address a number of needs in the district, including at its schools, its transportation area, and at a couple of athletic sites.
One of the biggest-ticket areas of attention Superintendent Keevin O’Neill said would be addressed if the renewal is passed is the construction of a new transportation facility for the district. He said the current one located on the same road as the middle school is an aging building, with the cost to replace it “about the same” as repairing it, and its location is unconducive to traffic patterns in the area for dismissal.
“If you’re here around 2:30, all our parents come in for the middle school, line up, drive past the bus garage to get to the middle school while our buses are trying to get out, while we have students walking through there,” O’Neill said. “Every day I look out there, and it’s a safety concern that needs to be addressed.”
The new facility, O’Neill said, would be constructed in a new spot which has yet to be found by the district. Any new location, he added, would need to be “conducive to getting to our main roads as quickly as possible so that our routes are more efficient.” It would also include more modern equipment than in the current building, including a lift system to easily perform maintenance on buses.
“It currently does not meet the needs of our fleet. We need a modernized facility. For example, our mechanics, they still have to use rollers to get under our buses. We have no lift system. So, to be more efficient and productive, a new facility makes sense,” O’Neill said.
The other big-ticket item on the agenda if the renewal is passed is constructing a new tennis complex. The current one, O’Neill said, is “cracked beyond repair” on multiple courts after over 20 years of use, and can only be used for practice or gym classes. Currently, Vicksburg’s tennis team has to travel to Schoolcraft for home competitions because their current courts are not deemed suitable for competition.
“They’re just in really poor condition. We’ve resurfaced them as much as we can in the state of Michigan, but as we know, just like with a driveway, after 23 years, it’s hard to think that it’s going to be perfect, and it’s not,” O’Neill said. “We’ve been resurfacing it over and over almost every single year for five to six years with no guarantee that that that’s going to solve the problem, because the companies know the sublayer, all of that needs to be replaced.”
In addition, O’Neill said a new auxiliary gymnasium would be in the works if the proposal is approved by voters. He said currently, the district does not have an auxiliary gym, and adding one would give more practice space that he said is “desperately” needed.
“We’re one of the few districts that does not have a standalone facility for just practice. A lot of districts have some type of auxiliary gym. We currently rent a facility in Schoolcraft so our competitive cheer team has a place to practice,” O’Neill said. “We’ve added sports, our middle school offerings have increased, so what we’re seeing is our students are practicing way too late. I don’t want kids practicing here past 9 p.m. I always find that to be a safety concern. An auxiliary gym will allow all of our students to have equal access to facilities and really prevent those late-night practices.”
Overall, O’Neill said the proposal focuses on three buckets – safety and security upgrades, replacing aging and inefficient infrastructure, and enhancing student learning and programs. Some of the student learning and programs that would be enhanced if the proposal passes is a new Outdoor Education Center building and renovations to the high school’s Performing Arts Center.
With the outdoor education building, which is located southwest of the village on Barton Lake, O’Neill said it has had issues for a while.
“It’s a beautiful piece of land, but the facility itself is in very poor condition. We have a deck that’s extremely slippery, our kids have to exit the building to use the bathroom, there’s a lot of safety concerns out there,” O’Neill said. “And again, it’s way cheaper to replace it than to repair it.”
As for the PAC, O’Neill said it would receive new seating, new interior finishes, new lighting and sound equipment, and do extensive work on the center’s orchestra pit if the proposal passes.
“We have to remove the stage off the top of it when we use the pit, and that is quite an undertaking. Those platforms are extremely heavy. We have to have an army of people to do it. And then just the way you get down to it and the way it’s structured down below, we just need it to be revamped,” O’Neill said.
Other items that would be addressed if the renewal passes include new secure entryways at every school building, fire alarm system replacements, improved visitor monitoring, improvements to the parking lots, boiler replacements and mechanical system upgrades, piping replacements, exterior wall and finish upgrades, locker and casework replacements, technology replacements, classroom technology upgrades, science lab improvements, and playground improvements.
In all, O’Neill said the goal with the renewal proposal is for the district to continue to be strong, adding that “strong schools equals strong communities.”
“I think people are drawn to communities because of the schools. When your schools are performing well and their facilities are up to date, it’s a point of pride for most,” O’Neill said. “I feel our schools are a big point of pride for everybody in the community, and strong schools, strong tax base, growth, business, it leads to everything.”
Along with Kalamazoo County residents in the Vicksburg school district, St. Joseph County voters in Mendon Township and Park Township that are in the school district will also be voting on the renewal.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
