YORK HIGH SCHOOL BOND ISSUE - Election Day is Nov. 15th but early voting has begun and you can vote during regular business hours at the courthouse Monday-Friday anytime between now and November 15th. On November 15th, you will vote at the City Auditorium if you live within the city limits. If you live outside the city limits, you will vote at the 4-H building on the fairgrounds.
• The proposed project of $12.535 million would allow for a major upgrade of almost $3 million to the electrical and mechanical capacities at YHS. Right now, we use a single-mode heating and cooling system that is very inefficient. The whole building is in either heating or cooling mode. If this bond passes, we would move towards a dual mode system where we could isolate specific areas like the auditorium to heat or cool only. This would save lots of energy and money on our utility bills.
• School Safety is a main component of this bond issue. The office complex would be moved to the south entrance of YHS and all other entry points would be locked and monitored after the school day begins. Visitors would have to get visual and verbal access to the building instead of being able to come and go whenever/wherever they want like they can now.
• The school district’s tax levy is currently $1.26 but was $1.29 two years ago. The school district has cut over $1.1 million in General Fund spending in the past two years so it can allocate money to take care of its facilities on a more regular basis.
• YHS has a very small and insufficient kitchen, food preparation, and serving area as meals are currently prepared at YMS and transported over daily. If this bond passes, the kitchen would be expanded to prepare more meals on site. This would help YPS pursue a modified closed campus approach where more students ate lunch at school on a regular basis.
• YHS is showing its age and the effects of being 36+ years old with no major renovations. Among numerous other things, this bond would allow the district to address numerous issues like handicapped accessibility and technology infrastructure.
• Art, band, and vocal music would get larger classrooms that are more conducive to small and large group work. The vocal and band rooms would also have much better acoustics and practice areas.
• The added gym would help cut back on 6 AM and 6 PM practices for our students. This would get our students home to their families at a more reasonable hour. It would also allow the school district to accommodate more youth and community activities that require a gym. With only three gyms in our district, all of them are currently booked with school, youth, and community events for most evenings for the next 18+ months.
• This project would improve lighting, windows, doors, and main entry ways all around the building. Natural light would be brought into the areas with no windows. Energy efficient doors, lights, and windows would help cut down on annual utility bills.
• If passed, this bond issue would add parking to our campus and an additional outlet to Delaware Avenue to help alleviate the bottleneck that is created daily along Duke Drive.
• If passed, this bond would raise taxes LESS than $97 per year per $100,000 of valuation.
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