Winchester School District leaders are planning two town hall meetings next week on the brink of early voting on a referendum that would allow the district to seek bonds to renovate the century-old high school building.
The referendum will seek voter approval for the sale of a $12 million general obligation bond to cover the renovation at the high school. The bond would cover costs the district currently cannot cover with their fund balances.
Last week, the referendum’s appearance hit a bit of bad publicity. The Journal-Courier reported the Scott County Supervisor of Assessments’ Facebook page made a now-deleted post about the school district issuing a Health-Life-Safety bond that would be paid for over 10 years and would “lead to a significant increase in property taxes, affecting all property owners, including those seniors with Senior Freeze Exemptions.” Winchester Superintendent Kevin Blankenship quickly refuted those claims to the Journal Courier saying that the post was inaccurate, saying no bond had been issued and there were no plans for such a bond to be paid down in 10 years. Blankenship and county tax assessor Julie Moore were said to have had a one-on-one meeting after the fact to clear up the discrepancy and open up better lines of communication. Nevertheless, the post drew ire from several members of the Winchester community. Blankenship says that any sort of bond would not appear on the 2025 tax bill. Blankenship says that the school board and his office are currently calculating the implications of the referendum on tax bills for residents of the district.
To provide information on the renovation project, the referendum, and to answer related questions, Superintendent Kevin Blankenship and other district officials will host town hall meetings at 6PM on Monday, February 24th and 6PM on Thursday, February 27th in the Winchester High School auditorium.
Each session is expected to last approximately 1 hour and cover the proposed projects, a cost analysis, the tax implications, and possible community impact. The district has been working with the community over the last two years on a decision with the building that is currently not ADA compliant, has some asbestos remaining in portions of the building, and currently doesn’t have air conditioning.