GLADSTONE — An informational town hall meeting was held recently at Gladstone High School to discuss an item on the ballot this year for voters in the Gladstone Area School District. The proposed plan, which asks voters to approve issuing up to $35 million in bonds to make school improvements, is being touted as a measure that will lower the current tax rate.

At the Oct. 18 meeting, Superintendent Jay Kulbertis delivered a presentation about the improvements the school system hopes to make and then fielded questions from concerned residents.

A previous school debt, paid by the current tax rate of 5.9 mills, is close to being paid off. Kulbertis explained there is a payment plan in place to return the previously borrowed money — which was also sold as bonds — and that by incorporating this proposal to incur another debt, “we’re just going to pay it off in a slightly different structure.”

If the ballot proposal does not pass, the new plans presented by the superintendent — which are for remodeling all of the schools, improving instructional technology, upgrading fire alarm systems, improving athletic facilities and more — may not be funded. If this proposal does pass, the new tax rate would become 5.75 mills, which is lower than what residents are paying presently.

But the concern expressed by attendees of the meeting is the exact nature of the potential projects that could be funded was not specific enough. If the vote passes, the school could take on any number of endeavors not yet specified in the proposal, so long as the total borrowed does not exceed $35,390,000.

One of the planned projects that would be immediately tackled is for the safety of students at Cameron Elementary. Currently, Kulbertis said children routinely walk in front of vehicles at the beginning and end of the day because the nature of the layout of the driveway is dangerous.

“For me, the biggest piece at Cameron is adjusting the traffic pattern for pick-up and drop-off,” Kulbertis said. “I just think what we’re doing right now absolutely has to change. If something happened tomorrow and we were told ‘this isn’t on the ballot, nothing’s going to happen’ — well, I’m not going to stop working on that traffic pattern at Cameron. It’s essential.”

Another measure would be to make school facilities more accessible for those with handicaps and special needs. Kulbertis said that when the newer school was being built, they thought that by complying with the mandated requirements, they were covering all the bases, but it has since become evident that what legally had to be done wasn’t necessarily everything that should have been done.

Work at every school in the district, both interior and exterior, is on the wish-list. It was said that existing lockers are not sufficient, size-wise, to accommodate the needs of students today — “We’ve got kids who routinely put stuff outside their locker,” said Kulbertis.

However, there is only so much that can be done with funds raised by bonds. By law, proceeds cannot be used for “general operating expenses and maintenance, classroom textbooks or educational materials,” administration or staff wages.

Some of the proposed desires struck more than one audience member as grandiose.

“Is everything that’s there — proposing — necessary? Or is it a dream that you’d really love to have but is not necessarily… needed?” asked one man trying to get his head around the presentation.

Another person pointed out that having sufficient gymnasiums and multi-purpose rooms could be useful for hosting other sorts of community events.

Several of the projects are outdoor or athletics-related. Presented ideas included rebuilding the track, adding an auxiliary gymnasium at Cameron, replacing the playground equipment at Jones Elementary, replacing fences, working on the football fields, upgrading the tennis courts and erecting new bleachers.

“We’ve got more sports offerings now than we’ve ever had, and there seems to be no end to level of interest. It’s exciting to have the numbers that we have right now,” Kulbertis said.

In regards to extracurriculars as a whole, he said, “our goal is to have every student involved in something.”

One concerned community member, a retired teacher who asked many questions, said that she thought the increased interest in physical activity was a good thing, because many people have gotten “much too fat.”

However, Gladstone City Commissioner Robert Pontius, who tried to clarify with the superintendent exactly what the breakdown of allotted funds would be between the various schools and departments, suggested that perhaps the athletic refurbishments and those to the educational facilities might be better proposed as two separate items, so that people could vote on them individually.

At least one person who asked a question from their seat in the auditorium described the vague nature of the proposal as taxpayers being asked to write the school a “blank check.”

Pontius requested a more precise, itemized document to answer the questions about which areas of which schools would receive focus, which Kulbertis agreed was a good idea and said would be forthcoming.