colorado town may try again with school construction bond

By any measure, the vote was close: by a less than 1 percent margin, voters in the northeast Colorado town of Yuma defeated a $17 million bond in 2016 designed to fund school construction and upgrading projects.
 
Now members of the Yuma School District-1 school board are contemplating presenting a new ballot question this November that would call for a smaller bond of around $12 million for similar building and upkeep work.
 
The bond would specifically pay for an expansion to the district’s 30 year-old Yuma High School, an expansion that would allow for new office space and classrooms for a career technical education center.
 
The district is expected to conduct a series of public input meetings in upcoming months to discuss the bond proposal. Members of the school board will most likely decide by early summer whether to place the proposal on this November’s ballot.
 
With a population of almost 3,600 people, Yuma has an economy largely dominated by the agricultural industry and oil and gas extraction. 

By Garry Boulard