A common question about the De Soto school district’s bond issue is how many times voters will mark their ballots, said Alvie Cater, director of community relations.

The answer: twice.

Two questions will be listed on the ballot. Voters will mark yes or no to the first question and then yes or no to the second question.

Question 1 will ask voters for the authority to issue $51 million in bonds to pay for building expansions, classroom additions, land acquisitions, technology, security enhancements and an early childhood center.

Question 2 will ask voters for the authority to issue $19.5 million in bonds to pay for artificial turf and theaters at De Soto and Mill Valley high schools. Question 1 must pass for Question 2 to pass.

Ballots will be mailed to voters Aug. 29.

“We just really need to get the message out there that there are two questions on the ballot, not one,” Cater said.

The district is attempting to educate voters with informational posters in each of its buildings. Cater said he hoped parents see the boards during enrollment next week and at scheduled open houses. The district also plans a community meeting on the bond issue at 7 p.m. Aug. 29 in the De Soto High School auditorium, 35000 W. 91 St., De Soto.

Growing pains

Although the housing market in the district has slowed, following the national trend, more students are coming into the school district, said Jack Deyoe, director of operations and planning.

Last year the district had almost 300 high school seniors and more than 500 kindergarten students, Deyoe said. Right now, there are four grade levels of more than 500 students that eventually will move to the high school level, creating a space problem, Deyoe said. And Mill Valley High School is in the greatest need, he said.

Should the referendum pass, Mill Valley would be expanded to 1,300 students, from its current enrollment capacity of 1,000 students.

At the start of last school year, Mill Valley had about 880 students. Although 190 of those students graduated in May, at least 255 incoming freshman will take their places.

The district predicts 965 students will be enrolled at Mill Valley this year, which accounts for the larger freshman class and some new students.

Mill Valley is designed for 1,000 when used at capacity, but maximum capacity can translate into some discomfort, Deyoe said.

“If you are near or past total capacity, every classroom or every room in the building is used each period,” Deyoe said. “If that happens, the teachers have to go somewhere else for planning.”

Mill Valley Principal Joe Novak said some teachers already must go elsewhere for planning time or travel to different classrooms to teach.

“I do not have another living space left,” he said. “Eighty percent of my classrooms are full all day every day. That means only 20 percent are open for teachers to have uninterrupted plan time.”

Last year, four teachers traveled to different classrooms to provide maximum use of the building space, Novak said. This year there will be eight traveling teachers.

Other issues include a lack of classroom space for special education, an overcrowded weight room and a small cafeteria space that forces the school to schedule seven lunch periods, Novak said.

Special-needs space

The other school now experiencing a crowding pinch is Starside Elementary School in De Soto. There, the problem is not so much rapidly growing enrollment, but the type of students enrolled at the school.

Although four district elementary schools of the same design – Starside, Riverview, Clear Creek and Mize – would get a four-classroom addition if the bond referendum passes, Starside is seen as a special case and would get priority.

As was explained when the board was deliberating the bond in the spring, all classrooms and many common areas in Starside are filled because of the need, often mandated, to provide special-needs classrooms to its large number of Hispanic students.

The $1.7 million expansion listed on the bond referendum would provide rooms for these special needs classes in regular classrooms and reclaim space in the Starside’s activity centers for their intended uses.

In November, a $105.7 million bond issue fell 33 votes short of passage. That proposal would have expanded Mill Valley and De Soto high schools, built two new elementary schools and an early childhood center, provided technology upgrades and acquired land for future development.

If this month’s bond issue fails, the district will consider changing school boundary lines. This will send some students who would go to Mill Valley under current boundary lines to De Soto.