At a glance

• Ardmore City School Board of Education members unanimously approved a bond proposal for $144.9 million to be decided by voters
• If the bond is approved by 60% of voters during the April 1 elections, Ardmore High School would be replaced with a new building, gymnasiums, and field house
• The proposal includes a 9% property tax increase between 2026 and 2040, or an additional $90 for every $1,000 already paid
• The current Ardmore High School was opened on March 4, 1974 and had replaced a 61-year-old facility

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The question of whether a new campus will replace an aging Ardmore High School is now up to voters after school board members on Thursday approved a resolution with a proposed bond worth nearly $144.9 million. Voters will have to decide in April if the price tag is worth the projected 9% tax increase for 15 years.

For Ardmore City School Superintendent Andy Davis, it’s a no-brainer. Davis served as the high school’s assistant principal for three years and principal for one year before he moved to the administration building in 2022. Now in his first year as the head of county’s largest school system, Davis has years of experience with what the facilities have at Ardmore High School.

And sometimes what they don’t have.

“We don’t have a good storm shelter, we don’t have a fire suppression system, we have a very aging electrical panel, and I was told by some of our maintenance people that we’re getting close to running out of our grandfather clause on some of those things that the building doesn’t have,” Davis said.

The Ardmore City School Board on Thursday unanimously approved a resolution calling for a vote on the bond proposal during the April 1 municipal elections. Davis said the board came to a consensus to replace the aging facility rather than undergo massive renovations and upgrades during their winter retreat on January 11. He said estimates to renovate the current campus were close to $50 million plus the disruption to students, teachers and faculty.

“The current high school was built in the 70s and it was not built for today’s time and the issues that we face,” Davis told reporters immediately after Thursday’s special meeting. “Just yesterday I got a phone call, we had another pipe collapse in the floor underneath the cafeteria that cannot be fixed without jack-hammering out the floor.”

The current Ardmore High School held its first classes on March 4, 1974 and had replaced a 61-year-old campus for $2.65 million.

School board members on Thursday heard form J.C. Leonard, Vice President of financial advice service Stephen H. McDonald & Associates. Leonard spoke briefly about the school’s bonding capacity and the necessary funds to finance construction of a new high school complex. The $144,880,000 bond is to fund the entire planned construction of a high school, gymnasiums, and field house, including interest, based on analyses from architects and bond advisors.

“That’s the cost to build, construct and finance that project over that period of time,” Leonard told the board. He added that the same funding mechanisms have been used on previous projects, most recently with the school’s performing arts center.

While the construction of the school is over $80 million, Davis said that the nearly $145 million bond will also help pay for financing, interest and other expenses that come with building a new school complex. “When it goes out to bid, you obviously have to make sure that you have all the funds to do everything you say you’re going to do,” Davis told reporters immediately after the special meeting.

The proposed bond does come with an impact on taxes for Ardmore property owners. If approved by 60% of voters, the bond would see an estimated 9% increase on property taxes from 2026 until 2040, or $9 for every $100 of ad valorum taxes paid.

Board Vice President Harry Spring knows the price tag looks big but believes the money will be better spent on a new campus rather than continuously repairing the existing campus.

“It just seems like continually we’re always repairing something. Sewer lines, drain lines, teachers are calling saying ‘it’s raining in my classroom,’ and our maintenance people are going over there almost daily to repair,” Spring said after Thursday’s special meeting. “It’s cheaper to build new than it is to repair an old building.”