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NILES — Brandywine Board of Education members elected new officers and heard details about the proposed bond issue going before voters in May at their meeting Monday night.

The bond issue would not raise taxes but would provide the district with money to build additions to Merritt Elementary School and the Middle/High School.

The meeting in the Middle/High School Media Center began with an organizational meeting to elect board officers for the 2024 year. Thomas Payne and Elaine McKee traded places with McKee now the board president and Payne the vice president. Brian Burge remains the treasurer and Holly Pamranka was elected the board secretary.

The bulk of the nearly two hour meeting was spent presenting the details of the new bond issue. The board is expected to approve the bond language and call for the election either later this month or in early February.

Voters will be asked to vote May 7 on the bond issue proposal which will not raise people’s taxes but will extend the current debt levy of 3.9 mills another 18 years to 2044. Informational and advocacy campaigns are expected to start in February with the district allowed to provide information only and outside groups able to advocate for passage.

Jacob Kulhanek of the Christman Company and Tony Leininger of Carmi Design made the bond issue presentation. They outlined the process of getting to this point, including doing a facilities assessment study, community surveys, community forums and stakeholder meetings with staff and community members.

Kulhanek said that 208 people answered the survey which asked them to rank what they saw as the district’s most pressing infrastructure needs. He said the top five priorities of respondents were safety and security, a Career Technical Education addition, building improvements, a performing arts addition and parking lot improvements.

The next five projects people said they’d like to see were artificial turf on the football field, resurfacing of the track, a new baseball field location, repurposing of the current CTE area and a gym addition at Merritt Elementary.

The survey also asked people if they would support over $20 million worth of projects if the millage levy would stay the same and be extended out a number of years. 82 percent of survey respondents said they would support such a proposal and another 12.6 percent said they’d like more information.

“That’s an incredible high level of support,” he said.

When he spoke, Leininger praised the process that led to this point.

“When you consider projects brought before you today, one thing is crystal clear to me, the district listened very carefully to the studies provided them,” he said.

“Couple that with some great guidance from the administration and you end up with a wonderful blend of projects,” he added. “There’s everything from safety and security projects to CTE education, performing arts and athletics and there’s even room for maintenance and repairs. I get pretty excited when see that type of blend.”

Leininger pointed out that when there’s that big a cross section of projects, that means that there is usually a cross section of voters to support the proposal.

As for the projects to be funded, he said the gym addition at Merritt will solve the operational issue of the gym and cafeteria being in the same space. The gym addition is estimated to cost up to $1.7 million.

The bulk of the projects are scheduled to be done at the middle/high school with the CTE addition costing up to $6.75 million, the new performing arts center up to $9.5 million and the renovation of the existing CTE area up to $650,000.

Secured entries at all three school buildings would cost up to $275,000 each. Other middle/high school improvements such as a new baseball field, parking lot improvements and the track resurfacing would cost a total of up to $2.55 million.

Overall, the projects they outlined would cost between $20.9 and $21.9 million to complete. Keeping the debt levy at the current level and extending it out another 18 years would bring in an estimated $21.7 million.

When asked about the higher cost of constructing a performing arts center versus the CTE addition, they noted that while the square footage is similar with the two projects, it costs more to put in the lighting, sound and stage amenities with the performing arts center.

As for when work might start if the bond issue proposal is approved, they said it would be done in stages with the CTE addition being done first and all the work completed by the summer of 2027.