$9 Million Seen For Third High School

The "vagueness" and the "all! or nothing approach" of the Board of Education's $15,525,000 bonding proposal today prompted the Junior Chamber of Commerce to issue a state-! ment calling for defeat of the proposition Jan. 8. Earlier this week the Chamber of Commerce i s s u e d a statement opposing the bonding referendum and it urged the school board to put a proposal 1 before voters in May or June for those items which can be shown to be absolutely necessary. The only local group which was formally supported the bond issue is the Parent-Teacher Legislative Committee. - The statement issuetL by the Jaycees today raisec! concen. fabout building costs, the use c funds and the timing of the rei erendum. "The average cost of seconc ary school buildings in tb. State of Michigan is $2,33 per pupil," the Jaycee state ment said. "The cost of Huroj High, now.under construction is $7,330 per. pupil, or approxi mately 300 per cent of the Miei igan average. "The extreme variance b tween Michigan building cost and Ann Arbor building cost I must be explained and justJ fled by the Board of Educatioi ' prior to their requestTiarl'p1' proval of such monies by the voting taxpayers." The Jaycees were critical of the use of funds approved by voters in the school board's last bonding election in 1965. "The Board of Edtfcation must be required to spend the allocated funds on the projectsj for which they were approved. I The taxpayers authorization forj the last bonding issue for specific projects included money for uncompleted projects thej Ann Arbor Board of Educatibnl is now requesting an addition-j al $5,500,000 to complete. Actually, this $5,500,000 has befen diverted to other projects at the whim of the board," the statement said. Finally, the JCC expressed concern about the timing of the school board's request. "Borrowing excessively in advance of the date when thel fundr are needed is not evi-j dencc of sound financial planning, particularly in view of thel f act that once these funds arel made available, the taxpayingj public has no assurance that thel monies will be retained for the specific purpose voted upon. "Noteworthy is the fkct that neither Ann Arbor High nor Huron High were built for $7 million and that at this date not ,even preliminary drawings ex-I ist for the third high school orí the administration building. I Past experience has shown thatl school board estimates f all woe-' fully" short of projections," thel statement said. I "Much concern was raised byl the Jaycees for not being ablel to support the local school! board," the Jaycees said in con-l clusion. "However, the decisionl to recommend defeat was feltl to be a necessary one becausel of vagueness and the all orl nothing approach of this partic-l ular bonding proposal."