Frazer Voters OK $1.5M To Improve Schools

A Dec. 18 bond vote count after a mail election brought a narrow win for facility improvements at Frazer High School and a larger win for Frazer Elementary School. Both bonds passing will raise nearly $1.5 million to repair, restore and replace certain facilities.

Voters registered in Frazer School District 2 in Valley County mailed out their ballots from Dec. 2 to 17. There were 181 ballots sent in.

The $980,000 requested for the high school was a little tougher to swallow for voters, as 96 voted for it and 83 voted against it. Because the vote was so close it was recounted and verified through the sheriff.

More approved of the $445,000 needed for the elementary school, as 90 voted in favor and 37 voted against it.

The high school bond will will be paid off over the next 15 years as the school board will decide the interest rates at a later date. Frazer Superintendent Corrina Guardipee-Hall said the payments for improvements will be spread out. She explained that the school had faced a huge breach in the roof which caused the gym floor to be partially replaced.

Though the building is shared, there are two districts, which is why there is a separate bond. The bond will help cover replacement of the roof, and improvements to housing for the teachers where siding has been aging and deteriorating. BNSF pays a significant amount of the taxes in the Frazer area, which will help minimize the impact of the bond in the school district.

With the bonds passed, the district can look at which would be more cost effective on some buildings. Some may need demolished and others maybe more usable with repairs. Guardipee-Hall said a lot of issues were just fixed for short-term to keep it in use, and the bond will help bring more long-term fixes.

“We just want to thank the voters for helping us so we can fix our facilities,” Guardipee-Hall said.