Tuesday the Greene County School District’s $21.48 million bond referendum passed with 68-percent approval.

Greene County Schools Superintendent Tim Christensen describes his reaction when he found out the bond had passed.

“(I was) Extremely excited and really excited for all the people that put all the work in on the bond referendum. It was a grassroots effort (and I’m) very excited and happy for what they did. Also (I’m) extremely excited for the opportunities that we’re going to have for the kids of Greene County, and also (I’m) very excited about the businesses and industries in Greene County because I think the regional academy is going to pay tremendous dividends as well.”

Going forward, Christensen notes that because the bond vote happened after the school board proposed the district’s tax levy for the next fiscal year at $12.69 per $1,000 of valuation, they will have to make a special change to increase the tax levy rate.

“Again with not knowing whether the bond was going to pass, we obviously didn’t add $2.70 to the budget that we published. So on April 11th, when we have a budget hearing, we’ll also have to pass to add $2.70 (per $1,000) to whatever is approved at the budget hearing and that will need to be sent to the (Greene County) Auditor as well.”

The total cost of the project is $35.48 million to not only build a new high school and career academy, but also a new gymnasium, performing arts center and converting the current high school into a middle school. Additional funding has been committed by several entities.

Christensen says the next steps in the project are to finalize the purchase price of the 80-acres of land for the new high school and career academy that’s west of American Athletic Incorporated and working with OPN Architects on final designs for the different aspects of the project.