photo by: DLR Group

This rendering shows an exterior view of a planned addition at Baldwin High School.

In a special election on Tuesday, voters in Baldwin City approved $17 million in bond issue projects for the Baldwin City school district that will expand and update classroom spaces on the high school campus and address safety and security concerns at the junior high and high school.

All nine of the city’s election precincts were reporting as of 9:15 p.m. Tuesday, according to unofficial results from the Douglas County Elections Office, with 888 of 1,331 ballots counted — just under 67% — voting in favor of the proposal.

As the Journal-World has reported, the proposal calls for constructing two building additions totaling 14,500 square feet and renovating another 9,000 square feet of existing building space, plus building two new roads around the campus. Around $11.8 million in bond funding will be dedicated to enhanced Career and Technical Education classroom spaces.

The approval comes just a year after Baldwin voters last considered a bond issue proposal for the district. The 2023 measure — a $25 million proposal that included a large-scale renovation of the high school’s field and track — didn’t enjoy the same support and failed to pass. About 55% of the 2,444 ballots cast in the last bond election were “no” votes.

One key difference between this year’s and last year’s proposals was that the 2023 proposal would have required increasing the district’s mill levy — the tax rate applied to the assessed value of a property — while this year’s does not.