Referendum questions galore

The crowd may have been small, but the number of questions certainly wasn’t at the penultimate referendum informational meeting last Thursday evening.About 50 New Hampton Community School residents attended the meeting to learn more about the proposed $19.415 million bond referendum the district is putting forth on Feb. 7.If the referendum is approved by “60 percent-plus one” of the voters next week, New Hampton plans to build a 81,000-square foot that would include a new competition gymnasium and construct a 4,000 industrial technology and vocational agriculture center at the high school.Maybe one of the most interesting questions asked of Superintendent Jay Jurrens was what would happen if voters reject this latest proposal.“I think we would come back to the voters and try again,” he said and indicated that vote would probably happen sometime later this year. “That’s up to the School Board, but we feel like the committee has come up with a good plan here.”As he has done at numerous informational meetings, Jurrens went through the plan — explaining how the district had arrived at this point and going into detail about not only the proposed building but also how it would be financed.A committee of community members and district staff members came up with the plan that Jurrens emphasized creates “flexible learning areas” that are needed for 21st century education.For the complete story see the 01/31/2017 New Hampton Tribune.