Members of the Gasconade County R-2 Board of Education will vote Dec. 15 on details of a potential April 2026 no-tax-increase bond issue that would help fund building expansions, including classrooms, and maintenance projects outside of the district’s budgeted scope.

Superintendent Dr. Jeri Kay Hardy said on Tuesday that the board has discussed several options with different price tags.

“What they are looking at is anywhere from $14 million to $16 million,” Hardy said. “They’ve got several different options that they’ve thrown out there. There are four different options, and they will determine what they are comfortable with.”

Discussions surrounding a no-tax-increase bond issue have taken place all year. Hardy clarified that the district isn’t asking residents to increase their taxes, but to keep the 67-cent debt service levy for capital improvements on the books.

“The Gasconade County R-2 School District’s debt service levy has been at 67 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for about 19 years, since 2006,” Hardy said. “The operating levy has not been changed since then as well. We are the longest-running district in our area that has not seen an increase in the amount per $100 for debt service or operating levy for 19 years now. All other surrounding districts have had some type of increase in their levies.”

Before they ask voters to approve a bond, the board will determine a final project list and price tag. The first projects on the list are at Owensville High School (OHS).

“All of that is due to expansions of CTE (Career Technical Education), and we need expansions for students to have classroom space,” Hardy said. “We’ve added more programs for career readiness so students are prepared when they leave high school.”

Career technology education classes include automotive technology (tiered courses), t-shirt design, welding and shop classes, to name a few.

The project list includes classroom additions, a multipurpose room and reorganization of the band/choir and weight room.

“CTE classes expanded,” Hardy said. “This plan moves kids out of the weight room to the band/choir room.

“Drama shares with wrestling and cheer in the small gym right now. Moving the weight room to the band/choir room means doing a connection to add a band/choir room for displaced students (between the main building and the agriculture and career technology building).

“Now they have wrestling, cheer, drama and PE classes sharing the small gym, so adding a multipurpose room on as part of the addition makes sense.”

At Owensville Elementary School (OES), the playground equipment is 16 years old and needs to be replaced.

At Gerald Elementary School (GES), there is inadequate storage space, and an expansion from the cafeteria to add freezer space is needed. Additionally, a gymnasium remodel that was previously on the GES bond issue project list is currently in progress.

“We are making improvements outside of the bond issue that we have the funds to make happen, regardless of the bond,” Hardy said.

During the Nov. 17 Gasconade County R-2 Board of Education meeting, member Kari Nolting shared that this OHS plan is her favorite option.

“I think I like this layout proposal the best out of what we’ve seen so far,” Nolting said. “I was a fan of putting the addition on the south end of the Ag building and not the art room door in the beginning, so I feel like it just saves us space on that north side, with property lines and all the other issues going that way.

“But I like the idea of putting those fine art spaces next to a potential auditorium remodel, because kind of keeping the department pieces together for who’s going to be practicing in that space or needing to use it during the school day. It’s just closer within the building. But then that same can be said for the multi-purpose room and weight room, having it over by the gym in the locker room spaces. Then being able to refurb all those locker rooms and not have to add on additional restrooms and locker room space, it all just kind of cleans it up, in my opinion. Getting a new one of these with just the projects that we were looking at, I like those numbers. The overall number makes me happy that we’re not maxing out what the potential bonding capacity is. So I do like that aspect of it. Hit a lot of points in this process.”

The district has paid off its previous bond debt early and has an estimated total bonding capacity of $32 million. Options that board members previously discussed were between $7.5 million and $19 million. Hardy thinks they will fall somewhere closer to the middle.

A list of projects presented to the board by the Long-Range Planning Committee, with prioritized projects, is available at the Administration Building. Should the board approve placing a measure on the April 7, 2026, ballot, a finalized list of projects will also be available.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Dec. 15 at the Administration Building.