The USD 308 Board of Education approved a $109,530,000 bond proposal during its meeting Monday evening, setting the stage for major facility improvements across the district.
The bond would fund enhancements to elementary school buildings, the construction of a new sixth through eighth grade middle school, and renovations to the existing Hutchinson Middle School building. That facility would be repurposed to house an early learning center and a student services facility. The bond would also finance the relocation of the district’s baseball and soccer fields currently located at 23rd Avenue and Severance Street.
Rather than calling for a special election, the board opted to place the bond issue on the ballot for the Nov. 4 general election.
In other action, the board established the out-of-district enrollment capacity for the 2025-26 school year.
The board looked at the historical numbers for enrollment dating back to the 2018-19 school year.
Those numbers show that the district had an attendance high of 4,277 students in 2019-19 and an attendance low of 4,000 students in the 2022-23 school year.
District officials offered the following enrollment projections for the upcoming school year and the non-resident enrollment capacity for the upcoming school year.
If a non-resident student in the current school year elects to continue to attend in the Hutchinson School District next year, they are not considered part of the Non-resident Student Enrollment Capacity, but are in the 2025-26 enrollment projections
The next USD 308 Board of Education meeting is scheduled for May 12.