It was less than two months ago that a $59.4 million bond issue passed in the Brighton Area School District, but already, district officials are hard at work making preparations to implement its provisions.

The funds will be used for a multitude of improvements including new roofing and parking lots for some schools as well as a multipurpose facility that can be used by all district schools. An entirely new, 20,000-square-foot STEAM Center that connects to Brighton High School will also be a major part of the bond issue, and there will be STEAM center additions for each of the four elementary schools, plus STEAM upgrades at Maltby Intermediate School and Scranton Middle School. STEAM is an acronym which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics.

Superintendent Greg Gray tells WHMI that since the design phase of such a large project normally takes up to eight months to complete, it will be some time before construction can begin. He says they're in the design process right now, doing survey work on the properties prior to putting together the schematic design. Gray adds that they are also close to selecting companies to do the work and then choose some dates to sell the bonds. He says that this coming summer they'll have some limited-scope projects, but that it will be the lightest summer of work for at least the next few years as the bond only just passed last November.

The bond issue will not result in any tax increase for property owners. That’s because the district’s bonded indebtedness has been reduced, concurrent with its finances having shown drastic improvement in recent years. Although there will be no millage increase over the 7.19 mills now levied, the bond issue could result in adding another year or so before the bond is fully paid off. (TT)