The Brighton Board of Education has decided not to proceed with a November bond issue.

The board has been debating whether or not to go to the voters with a bond proposal on the November general election ballot. At Monday night’s meeting, the board voted 4-2 not to proceed with President Andy Burchfield and Treasurer Bill Trombley opposed. Vice President Dave Chesney was absent.

Talk of a bond issue surfaced after some board members felt it was necessary to take care of items that were left out of the $88.5 (m) million bond issue passed by voters six years ago. The reason those items were removed from the bond issue was the fear of sticker shock on the part of voters. The board was looking at a possible proposed bond for about $45 (m) million and had already went through different line items at a previous meeting. Big ticket items such as replacing old, maintenance-prone boilers at several schools, repaving several school parking lots, roof replacement and other infrastructure items are needed. Last night, the board needed to decide if it wanted to move forward and take the bond to Treasury, but members decided not to.

Superintendent Greg Gray tells WHMI at this point, the board is not moving forward with putting any bond issue to voters but especially not in November. He says the board wanted to do some further exploration and there was some added scope a couple members wanted to look at in price so the topic won’t be back anytime soon. Gray noted it’s a process looking at increased or decreased scope so it’s basically back to the meeting board now. He says there was again some discussion about additional items and existing items, as well as whether or not members had enough information or time to explore whether they wanted to put it on the November ballot. Gray says it really came down to timing and they’ll continue to evaluate and re-evaluate facilities and continue to discuss potential options to the board, which can give direction on how they want to proceed. (JM)