CPS superintendent discusses district's plans after bond passes

Apr. 3—"This gives us an opportunity to kind of show the people that voted for our bond that we're doing what we say we're going to do. We want to earn their trust and we want to be good stewards of their resources." — Colby Cagle Coyle Public Schools Superintendent {related_content_uuid}5d33e5cd-4399-4629-b786-84260e0b27bc{/related_content_uuid}

Coyle Public Schools has been on a quest for over a year to get propositions passed in an attempt to improve facilities around the small campus. Past propositions heavily featured athletics updates, but the proposition Tuesday specifically focused on academic facilities.

And with 68.51% of the vote in favor of the $1.44 million proposal, the Coyle school district got a win to start making improvements in the town of 355 citizens.

"This kind of gives us an idea of where we're at right now, and from this point forward we kind of have a launching pad to develop a 20-year plan," said Colby Cagle, CPS superintendent and CPS elementary principal. "... This bond that we passed (Tuesday) night is basically a maintenance bond."

He said that 20-year plan includes keeping millage and tax rates as low as possible, but also obtaining the resources that the district needs to finalize the plans, along with any updates.

The proposed project includes $270,000 to construct, furnish, equip and/or acquire improvements at the existing cafeteria to include but not limited to kitchen remodel, electrical, HVAC and plumbing improvements. Another $135,000 was tagged for improvements and upgrades in the cafeteria's common area.

"Our cafeteria is 52 years old, hasn't been touched," Cagle said, noting that it's the second most-used building on the campus. "A lot of our equipment is that old."

He said the Oklahoma School Security Institute and the State fire marshal came through the building, and school administration knew they would have to make a lot of improvements, which the bond will help complete.

The largest portion of the proposal focuses on roofing improvements districtwide as needed, with an estimated $710,000 allotted for reroofing.

With this week's storm, reroofing is becoming more and more of an issue.

"We went in Tuesday morning, we had water on the floor in some places, so we're going to get that taken care of," Cagle said.

Another $140,000 will go toward improvements and upgrades of restrooms at the high school and elementary school, with another $185,000 to include demolition of certain old or unusable building space and improvements to locker rooms and halls.

With the passage of the bond, Cagle said the main focus will be upgrading the elementary school, and with the improvements on the high school, the district should be set on that building — other than maintenance — for the next 15 years, barring growth.

Next steps after that would be a new elementary school, Ag facilities and hopefully, another gym. For now, they will juggle holding physical education classes before building a new gym.

Cagle said the historic part of the building, the gym, is nearly 100 years old — part of a Works Progress Administration project that was remodeled in the 1930s.

"It's been condemned for many years, and we're having to pay to try to heat and cool that, just because of the layout of the building," Cagle said.

Cagle said there's a lot of history in the old building, and the district will try to salvage what they can and incorporate that into new upcoming projects — which he hopes will include the site of a new elementary school.

The last bond issue was issued in 2011 for a school gym, but prior to that, school bonds had not been voted on since the mid-90s.

Part of the reason CPS struggles to get residents on board is that many of them have no ties to the school district, Cagle said.

The CPS district encompasses Meridian, Langston and Coyle, spanning 180-square miles.

Cagle said many people also move into the district who are unaware they are within the CPS district.

Trying to educate residents and present the need was part of the effort, and helped pass the bond, Cagle said.

"We knew the (bond) in October was a big ask," Cagle said. "We thought we would have been a little bit more successful with it than what we were, but taxes are tight as is."

The current bond was a "no tax increase, and we were glad to get it across the goal line," Cagle said.

"This gives us an opportunity to kind of show the people that voted for our bond that we're doing what we say we're going to do," he said. "We want to earn their trust and we want to be good stewards of their resources."

Other area resultsIn Yale, the citizens gave a resounding yes to a proposition that allows the City to sell Jim Thorpe Park Football Field and the Jim Thorpe Park Ag Barn to the Yale Board of Education with 132 votes (76.74%) in favor.

The Yale votes weren't as lopsided with two City commissioner seats. In seat No. 3, Karen Hart received 95 votes (53.37%), while it was an even tighter race for seat No. 4, with the Richard P. Adsit earning 50.85% of votes.

In Morrison, Randee Dawn Sloan tallied 55.31% of votes for the seat No. 4 with the Morrison Public Schools Board of Education.

Robyn Mangum won seat No. 4 for the Perry Public Schools Board of Education with nearly 90% of the votes. Mangum tallied 344 votes, while candidate Hannah Vaughn received 40.

In a close race out of Ripley, Preston McIntire collected 53.74% of the votes to retain seat No. 4 on the Ripley Public Schools Board of Education. McIntire received 79 votes, while his opponent, Johnny Sanches, received 68 votes.

Results are official once certified by the Payne County Election Board after 5 p.m. on Friday.

News Press managing editor Jason Elmquist contributed to this story.