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Holley’s $18.1 million school project goes to voters on Dec. 13

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 December 2022 at 9:25 am

Photo by Tom Rivers: The Holley Elementary School is pictured recently on North Main Street.

HOLLEY – The school district will present an $18.1 million capital project to the community in a vote on Dec. 13.

Voting will be from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Holley Middle/High School Foyer, 16848 Lynch Rd. Eligible voters must be at least 18, a U.S. citizen and a legal resident of the district for at least 30 days.

The project will be funded with $14.1 million in state aid and $4 million that is already in a Holley capital reserve fund. School leaders say there won’t be any new taxes on residents with the project.

The proposed project is focused on safety, program improvements and site renovations, according to a newsletter about the project.

“We focused on the following three areas: keeping our schools safe, enhancing and increasing educational opportunities for our students, and ensuring our buildings and grounds, including The Woodlands, are in outstanding condition for many years to come,” District Superintendent Brian Bartalo and Board of Education President Robin Silvis wrote in a letter to the community.

The scope of the project includes:

Safety

  • New secure entrances at the Elementary School and Middle/High School
  • Security film applied to doors at both schools’ main entrances

Program Improvements

  • Music rooms renovated in both schools
  • New STEM and instructional spaces created at the ES
  • M/HS Auditorium lighting updated

Site Renovations

  • New bleachers, scoreboard, lights and parking lot installed at The Woodlands
  • Air conditioning established in remaining ES classrooms
  • Storage added inside and outside district buildings
  • Signage increased on campus
  • Track resurfaced in Hawk Stadium
  • Hawk Drive and sidewalks upgraded

Holley’s last capital vote was in December 2014. The district leaders expect the new project, if approved by voters, would then need detailed plans to be prepared by Holley’s architects and construction management team. Those plans would be submitted to the state Education Department for review, a process that typically takes several months.

Bartalo and Silvis said the district is pushing to have all the needed approvals and bidding process on schedule for construction to start in the summer of 2024.

“The timing of the planning and construction comes when we can maximize state aid dollars to maintain zero tax impact,” Bartalo and Silvis said in their letter.

For more information on the project, click here.