After the May 14 bond referendum that proposed the construction of several new facilities in the Lamar County School District failed to pass, district officials are expected to decide whether to authorize a second election measure to allow residents to once again vote on that matter.
District superintendent Steven Hampton said members of the district’s board of trustees will discuss the matter at the next scheduled board meeting at 6 p.m. August 12 in the library at Oak Grove Middle School. If approved, the vote will be held November 5 – during the general election – at residents’ regular polling places rather than the various schools in the district during the previous election.
“I can’t say that we are (going to have the election) until the board votes on it – they have to approve the resolution (before that can happen),” Hampton said. “After the May 14 bond referendum, we went out and got feedback … and a lot of the feedback we got was that (the voters) didn’t like having to vote at the (school) gyms, and they didn’t understand why we did a special election.
“They wanted to vote in their regular precincts, so we’re doing it in the general election. They’ll vote for President (of the United States) – it’s going to be national election, state election, and then down at the very bottom, the last item on the ballot will be the bond referendum for the school district.”
If the board approves the measure, voters will determine yea or no on the bond, which would allow the construction of three new schools in the district, along with a new office building and other spaces. Residents in the school areas of Lumberton, Oak Grove, Purvis/Baxterville and Sumrall would be allowed to vote on the matter, which Hampton said is necessary to accommodate the steadily-increasing student population – which is currently at more than 10,500 and growing.
“I don’t know how the board is going to vote,” Hampton said. “I feel like they’re all supportive of it, but until they vote for it, I can’t actually assume that’s going to happen
The bond would help with funding for the following items throughout the district:
- Lumberton: A new physical education facility.
- Oak Grove: A new Oak Grove Middle School, which would be a two-story structure on U.S. 98 on 16th-Section land which the school already owns. The building would feature a competition gymnasium and band hall. The current Oak Grove Middle School building would be renovated for the 11 Oak Grove Pre-K classes, and the back of the campus, on the Old Highway 11 entrance, would be converted into career and technical education classes. A new office building at Oak Grove Elementary School also would be built and the current office space would be converted back into classrooms.
- Purvis/Baxterville: A new two-story Purvis High School would be built on Highway 11 on school-owned 16th-section land. That building would feature a competition gymnasium, a band hall, choral space, practice/PE fields and JROTC.
- Sumrall: A new two-story Sumrall High School would be built on school-owned 16th- section land. The building would feature a competition gymnasium, a band hall, choral space, practice/PE fields and JROTC.
In order to succeed, the measure would need the approval of 60 percent of the voters who would show up for the election. Although more residents of the school district than not voted in favor of the matter in the May 14 election, it failed to pass because of a lack of that percentage.
According to results from that election, 1,530 residents voted for the measure, while 1,313 voted against the measure, for a total of 2,845 votes.
Given those numbers, 53.82 percent of voters chose to approve the measure, while 46.18 percent voted to decline it. That included a total of 125 absentee ballots, of which 41 were in favor of the bond issue and 84 were against it.
Broken down by precincts, those results were as follows:
Broken down by precinct, the results are as follows:
- Lamar Park: 45 votes (72.58 percent) for the bond; 17 (25.42 percent) against.
- Okahola: 27 votes (60 percent) for the bond; 18 (40 percent) against.
- Richburg: 78 votes (65.55 percent) for the bond; 41 (34.45 percent) against.
- Northeast Lamar: 25 votes (83.33 percent) for the bond; 5 (16.67 percent against.
- Lumberton: 18 votes (15.93 percent) for the bond; 95 (84.07 percent) against.
- South Purvis: 114 votes (50.89 percent) for the bond; 110 (49.11 percent) against.
- Yawn: 8 votes (38.10 percent) for the bond; 13 (61.9 percent) against.
- Wesley Manor: 5 votes (45.45 percent) for the bond; 6 (54.55 percent) against.
- Pine Grove: 34 votes (51.52 percent) for the bond; 32 (48.48 percent) against.
- Baxterville: 8 votes (16.33 percent) for the bond; 41 (83.67 percent) against.
- Greenville: 24 votes (20.51 percent) for the bond; 93 (79.49 percent) against.
- Purvis: 158 votes (52.15 percent) for the bond; 145 (47.85 percent) against.
- Arnold Line: 49 votes (63.64 percent) for the bond; 28 (36.36 percent) against.
- Mill Creek: 29 votes (46.03 percent) for the bond; 34 (53.97 percent) against.
- Midway: 66 votes (49.25 percent) for the bond; 68 (50.75 percent) against.
- Oak Grove: 94 votes (63.51 percent) for the bond; 54 (36.49 percent) against.
- Lake Serene: 214 votes (78.10 percent) for the bond; 60 (21.9 percent) against.
- Kingsmill: 51 votes (94.44 percent) for the bond; 3 (5.56 percent) against.
- Canebrake: 78 votes (61.9 percent) for the bond; 48 (38.1 percent against.
- Breland: 75 votes (75.76 percent) for the bond; 24 (24.24 percent) against.
- Oloh: 17 votes (41.46 percent) for the bond; 24 (58.54 percent) against.
- Rocky Branch: 40 votes (38.46 percent) for the bond; 64 (61.54 percent) against.
- Sumrall: 197 votes (48.05 percent) for the bond; 213 (51.95 percent) against.
- Oral: 76 votes (49.67 percent) for the bond; 77 (50.33 percent) against.
Hampton said he hopes for a better turnout this time around, if the election is indeed approved.
“I think when you’re looking at the May 14 election, there was a very low turnout, so I feel like voting in a general election like this will give us a good sense of what the public wants,” he said. “We heard from a very small subset of our population, and from the estimates we’re hearing now, we’ll hear from around 80 percent of the registered voters that will vote for this bond referendum.”
In advance of the August 12 meeting, Hampton has been meeting with several groups to garner support for the referendum.
“I’ve been talking to PTOs, I’ve been talking to civic organizations to try and get the information out to the public and get the knowledgeable about what they’re voting on,” Hampton said. “We want to get them all the information so they can vote how they like for this opportunity.”
