Voters Set To Decide On $10.9 Million Bond For Mustang Public Schools

Early voting started this week for next week's special election in Mustang.

One of several issues up for a vote is a $10.9 million dollar bond for Mustang Public Schools.

When schools closed due to the pandemic, district officials said several issues were brought to the forefront.

“What COVID did was it exposed this,” Mustang Public Schools superintendent Charles Bradley said. “This is a need we need to move on. Having the ability for our students to have a device and to use it during a time like this.”

Right now, Bradley said, there aren't enough devices for every student.

“We were able to pull the devices we have and make it accessible to them, so they can have a device while their home on that A/B schedule,” Bradley said. “If we had a one-to-one in place already, then the device issue would've settled itself because everybody would've had access to it.”

Four and a half million dollars will go to renovations such as upgrades to the HVAC system and special needs classrooms, nearly $4 million would go to improving district technology capabilities, $2 million towards textbooks as well as instructional material and $500,000 would be delegated for fine arts and athletics purposes.

Bradley said they received CARES Act funding from the government. The funds helped, but it wasn’t enough to revamp resources.

“The way a bond issue works is the board has to approve a resolution six months prior to the bond election happening. So, if you go back six months, there was no CARES Act or there was very limited CARES Act (funding),” Bradley said. “At that time, we knew we had to pretty much put our destiny in our own hands.” 

Both Canadian and Cleveland County residents will be able to vote for or against this proposition on Tuesday.