There's a lot of work to be done for Durham Public Schools, and taxpayers don't mind footing the bill.
Voters approved four separate bond issues Nov. 6, totaling more than $227 million to improve roads and sidewalks, the Museum of Life and Science, Durham Technical Community College and DPS.
Seventy-seven percent of voters cast their ballots in favor of the biggest item and the most expensive bond in Durham's history-a school bond referendum worth $194.2 million. The approval came only two years after citizens passed a $105-million school bond.
Steve Schewel, vice chair of the DPS Board of Education and a visiting assistant professor with the Hart Leadership Program, said more than half of the money will go toward acquiring land for one school and building several others. Schools to be built include two new elementary schools, a middle school, a traditional high school and the City of Medicine Academy-a smaller high school for 400 students interested in the medical professions.
All projects are slated for completion by 2013.
The new schools are necessary to accommodate the DPS system's growing enrollment, which increased this year by 700 students-approximately 2.5 percent-Schewel said.
"We have severe overcrowding at two of our high schools, Riverside [High School] and Jordan [High School]," he added.
The new comprehensive high school will eventually serve 1,400 students who live in what are now the Riverside and Jordan districts and may be located near Duke's West Campus, Schewel said.
Significant sums will also go to numerous smaller projects, such as the enlargement of the Hillside High School cafeteria and improvement of traffic patterns at Jordan High School.
Community members expressed concern about the traffic situation at Jordan High School last year after parent Steven Lingafelt said he nearly hit two students attempting to cross Hope Valley Road.
A two-part video of students' close encounters with oncoming traffic-entitled "Student Endangerment"-have received 1,000 hits on YouTube.
Sophomore David Clain, who tutors at Jordan High School as part of a service-learning class, said even though he is not sure the project merits $950,000, the traffic situation at the high school is a problem.
"The traffic around Jordan [High School] is a little ridiculous," he wrote in an e-mail. "I've been going at 7:30 for the start of school, and it takes me 10 to 15 minutes to drive the last two blocks."
DPS Superintendent Carl Harris said the successful bond referendum will have long-lasting positive effects on the schools.
"With the approval of this bond issue, we are now poised to have some of the best school facilities in the state and across the nation," Harris said in a statement.
Schewel said the wide margin of support for this year's bond issue shows citizens are confident in DPS's management of funds.
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