Bond Issue Up For Vote On Tuesday

Monday, November 8th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Tuesday, Tulsa voters will be hitting the polls to vote on the latest Tulsa Public Schools bond issue. This time residents will be faced with 2 very different opinions about the $109 million dollar bond.

Supporters are afraid voters will find it easy to say no before hearing all the facts. Opponents believe saying no is the financially smart thing to do.

Eric Pitts says he's trying to make Tulsa Public Schools better for his children. His daughter, Kelsey, says she's seen a lot of new stuff lately at her school, MacArthur Elementary.

"They got brand new rooms, and brand new bathrooms. We also got a brand new library," says Student Kelsey Pitts.

Her father says it all has to do with the 1996 bond issue.

"The bond issue has done a lot of great things at MacArhur," says Eric Pitts.

The results of the 1996 bond issue have some people, like Joni Clark, opposing the new proposals.

"First of all they haven't fulfilled what they said they were going to do," says Opponent Joni Clark.

Clark says no opposition group has been officially formed, but she and some friends of been passing and mailing out postcards asking people to say no. Clark questions how school leaders spent money from the '96 bond issue. For example, she wonders why leaders want to replace and tear down Booker T High, when more than $1 million dollars were earmarked for renovations.

"It's been going down a big black hole, basically," says Clark.

James Stuart, is a volunteer on a committee overseeing bond spending and says the Booker T money is on hold. He says he joined because he once thought the district was wasting money.

"If you are truly concerned about what is happening go out and look," says Stuart.

Polls Open on Tuesday at 7 a.m.