Olathe school voters overwhelmingly OK $298M bond issue. Here’s how it will be spent
Johnson County voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the Olathe school district’s request to issue $298.3 million in bonds to replace a middle school building and fund several facility, technology and safety improvements.
Unofficial results from the special mail ballot election show the bond initiative passing with 67.7%, or 15,936 votes, in favor, according to the Johnson County election office, while 32.3% voted against it. In total, 22.6% of eligible voters, or 23,542, cast ballots.
Ballots were due by noon on Tuesday. The final results will not be determined until after the canvass and after the official vote count is certified by the Board of Canvassers. The board is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. next Tuesday, Election Commissioner Fred Sherman said.
“Today, I am grateful for our Olathe Public Schools community for the opportunity to positively impact our students and their future,” Superintendent Brent Yeager said in a statement. “We have a long-standing history of support within our community and success with previous bond elections, and we thank you for continuing to invest in high quality schools and education right here in Olathe through this bond.”
The bond referendum does not increase taxes.
Tuesday’s victory for the district will allow it to fund a variety of projects, including the $62.5 million construction of a new Santa Fe Trail Middle School, to be built directly behind the current building. In the meantime, students will remain in their current school.
The largest chunk of the bond money will fund facility projects. They include renovating school auditoriums, updating athletic complexes, resurfacing and improving playgrounds and fields, plus fixing up and maintaining aging buildings.
More than $8.2 million is expected to go toward safety, including adding sensors that detect students vaping in middle schools, installing more cameras in several buildings and improving traffic flow for Olathe South High School, Indian Trail Middle School and Heritage Elementary School.
Another $60.7 million will go toward technology improvements, such as new computers, tablets, sound systems and infrastructure upgrades.
For more information, visit olatheschools.org/bond2022.
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 5:42 PM.
