Parents and patrons of USD 251 North Lyon County are encouraged to learn more about current facilities and plans for new buildings as part of a series of meetings over the next 7 weeks.
USD 251 has announced public tours of Northern Heights High School on Friday, with tours at 5, 5:30 and 6 pm. That will be followed by a public meeting at North Lyon County Elementary and Junior High at 10 am October 3, tours of NLC on October 8 and a public meeting at Northern Heights at 6:30 pm October 28.
Superintendent Bob Blair, a guest on KVOE’s Morning Show on Wednesday, says a patron survey last year drive the decisions to seek a new high school and new athletics complex.
Blair says it was cost-prohibitive to create a single K-12 campus, but he says the proposed configuration works. He also says the new high school is designed with the future in mind.
USD 251 has 2 bond petitions on the November ballot. The first one involves funding a new high school near NLC at nearly $26 million in bond funding. The second calls for a new athletics complex just north of Americus at a cost of almost $5.2 million in bond funding. Bonds will be repaid over a 30-year term. If approved, both questions would increase the district levy by 21 mills. If the high school passes by itself, the increase would be 17 mills. Blair says residents can gauge their personal impact by going to the district website, usd251.org.
Blair says new facilities would save on energy costs for the district. Staffers wouldn’t be traveling back and forth between buildings, which could generate more class options for students.
The district atmosphere appears substantially different from a decade ago, when USD 251 tried unsuccessfully on 3 different configurations on new facilities — in part because the district had schools at Americus and Reading. Operations at Reading Elementary ended in 2018. Blair says the community engagement activities last year didn’t indicate the same level of concern.
If voters approve, construction could begin by spring 2027 and students could begin classes by fall 2029. Northern Heights property would be up for sale.
