The St. Johns school board voted Monday night to place a new bond proposal on the November ballot. The district's previous proposals totaled $92 million in 2024 and nearly $100 million in 2025, both of which failed.
- St. Johns school board voted Monday to place a $40 million bond proposal on the November ballot.
- The new proposal is significantly smaller than failed bond requests of $92 million in 2024 and nearly $100 million in 2025.
- Superintendent Anthony Berthuime said the proposal would not increase the current tax rate, keeping the district at 7 mills through 2033.
WATCH: St. Johns schools to put $40M bond on November ballot
Superintendent Anthony Berthuime said the scaled-back proposal focuses on essential infrastructure needs.
"It is truly the basic needs. We're talking about parking lots, boilers, classroom renovations," Berthuime said.
According to Berthuime, the proposal would not increase the current tax rate and would keep the district at 7 mills through 2033.
During public comment, some neighbors urged support for the measure.
"This high school is over 55 years old, and look at how well it and all the facilities have been maintained. That has never been free. Generations before us have stepped up," one neighbor said.
Not all residents are on board. The bond has been a major topic of conversation across St. Johns, with some community members remaining frustrated after two previous failed votes.
"It's been voted on twice, and you evidently haven't listened," one neighbor said during public comment at the boards January meeting.
Berthuime said the district has taken that feedback into account and believes this proposal better reflects what the community wants.
"I think one of the things that I've learned, the lesson is every campaigns a new campaign. This is a new campaign," Berthuime said. "The previous are what has happened in the past. Obviously, we wanna learn from our experiences and listen to our community feedback and we have."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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