Buckley Community Schools will get $7.4 million thanks to a bond passed by voters Tuesday night in Grant, Green Lake, Mayfield, Hanover and Wexford townships.
Money will be used to build a new preschool, add an addition to the K-12 building, and expand the cafeteria.
Superintendent Jessica Harrand said the district expects enrollment to grow by 100 students in the next five years.
“We are running out of space — for us that was a big part of the project," Harrand said. "We’re really focused on the cafeteria. We don’t have enough seats for everyone so we’re serving lunches from 10:30 till late in the afternoon. And we’re flipping classrooms every 15 minutes, so it’s a pretty busy space for a significantly long amount of time.”
The bond will also be used to purchase two new school buses and improve security.
Harrand said the current preschool building is an old canning center and needs to be replaced.
“I actually attended sixth grade in that building," she said. "Many people in the district lovingly remember spending time up there. But it is actually pretty difficult to have an old building like that where the pipes freeze and the windows are really old and it takes a lot of maintenance to keep up an old building like that.”
Construction will start in spring next year and extend into 2025. Learn more about the bond issue here.
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