Lawrence High School, left, and Free State High School are pictured on Friday, Nov. 6, 2015.

If voters decide to approve the Lawrence school district’s $87 million bond issue this spring, they’ll likely see a mill levy increase of 2.4 mills, district officials estimate. That bump equates to an approximate $55 tax increase per year for the owner of a $200,000 home.

The Lawrence school board on Monday voted unanimously to authorize and call for a May election of the 2017 bond issue, which aims to transform Lawrence’s secondary schools into “21st century learning environments” comparable to those funded by a 2013 bond issue for the district’s elementary schools, Superintendent Kyle Hayden told the Journal-World.

“It’s really about creating a learning culture in Lawrence Public Schools that supports personalized learning and includes an opportunity for all our students to learn in spaces that are more optimal to their student engagement, to be able to create and innovate and collaborate with each other,” Hayden said of the proposed improvements at Lawrence’s middle and high schools. “It’s very much impacting the ‘learning everywhere’ concept. The second component, I think, is the equity across all of our facilities.”

The district aimed for “equity,” he said, in its 2013 bond issue, which totaled $92.5 million in renovations meant to modernize Lawrence’s elementary schools. “Now,” Hayden added, “it’s that next step for secondary schools,” in particular the aging Lawrence High School.

The 1950s-era building would receive more than $40 million of the bond’s total budget, notably in enlarged classrooms, a modernized library and upgrades to mechanical, electrical, plumbing and roofing systems. Also on the roster are renovations to the school’s annex and auditorium as well as its fine arts and career and technical education facilities, plus changes to create a more secure campus.

Free State High School, the newer building by more than 40 years, would also gain additional classrooms, a modernized library, renovated locker rooms and parking/site improvements.

Projects at Lawrence’s four middle schools include modernized libraries, added open spaces for collaborative learning and improvements to mechanical, electrical, plumbing and roofing systems.

District leaders opted for a May 2 mail-in election, Hayden said, for a number of reasons. As opposed to an August or November election (when the school board’s respective primary and general elections would occur), a spring election would allow the district to bring the bond issue to voters before the start of the next budget cycle this summer.

“Essentially, the (tax) increase is going to be less significant than it would be if we continued to wait,” Hayden said.

When the last bond issue passed in spring 2013, the portion of the district’s mill levy devoted to paying off bonds stood at nearly 10.6 mills. Currently, after a consistent decrease over the last several years, it’s hovering around 9.6 mills, which would increase to about 12 mills if the 2017 bond issue passes in May.

“If we were to wait another full year, you’d continue to see that drop from that 9.6,” Hayden said. “Now, people’s perceptions become a little bit different, because they’ve lived with the lower mill levy every year, and it continues to drop, so we have the ability to fill it back up to a place that maybe doesn’t feel as different or uncomfortable to people.”

There’s also, Hayden said, another timing component that he believes appeals to parents and when they’re most actively engaged in their children’s schooling.

“If I were to think of another factor, it’s that August isn’t necessarily an ideal time to have an election, either,” Hayden said, referring to the Aug. 1 primaries. “Parents of our students who would have an interest with any type of bond election, many of those people are on vacation and out of town right around the time that you’d be wanting to have that election.”

Turns out, parents are perhaps more likely to pay attention to such matters while schools are still in session.

In the meantime, Hayden plans to visit every school in the district, as well as revisiting local organizations he met with at the beginning of his tenure last year as superintendent — Rotarians, Optimist Club members and the like — to drum up support over the next few months for the bond issue.

“At that time, I told them if the board approved this, I’d probably be back,” he added. “I warned them.”

The Lawrence school board meets next at 7 p.m. Jan. 23 at the district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.