Pryor Voters To Decide On $81M School Bond Issue

Thirteen years after Pryor Public Schools announced a long-term vision to revamp the district, the final stage of their plan is now up for a vote.

“We need to make sure our teaching and learning spaces and our other facilities in the district are really quality,” said Dr. Lisa Muller, Superintendent of Pryor Public Schools.

Two weeks from Tuesday, voters in Pryor will decide on an $81 million bond proposal, which includes renovations, new construction, and technology improvements to buildings district wide. Muller says this is the final bond of a plan laid out by district leaders in 2009.

“This is really the culmination of a plan that the previous superintendent and board set out back in 2009 and there has been a bond election about every three years since that time that’s built on those plans that were established then,” said Muller.

This bond includes renovations to two elementary schools, new classrooms in the middle schools, a new maintenance facility, an addition to the high school to connect the gym, new textbooks, band instruments, and widespread technology improvements. It also includes a brand new football stadium across from the high school.

“Our current football stadium was built quite some time ago and is in need of some pretty significant repairs,” said Muller. “So with analysis of the repair costs versus building new we did decide it was the best decision to build new.”

Muller says the district has separated bond elections in a way to not increase taxes, with the last bond election back in 2018. All of the other elections connected to the long-term plan have passed and Muller hopes that trend continues on April 5th.

The district is holding two community meetings to discuss the bond proposal. The first one is next Monday at 7 pm. The bond needs 60 percent support to pass.