Voters back bond proposals in Ruston, Choudrant school districts

Voters in the Ruston and Choudrant school zones gave the Lincoln Parish School Board the green light to move forward with facility upgrade projects at Saturday’s election.

A $17.5 million capital improvement package in the Ruston district won passage by a narrow margin as 54% of voters supported the measure and 46% stood against it, according to complete but unofficial returns.

The package of mostly athletics and campus security upgrades passed by 160 votes.

A $2 million bond proposal in the Choudrant district passed with a little more breathing room, carrying 63% of the vote Saturday. With a 12.5% voter turnout, the measure passed with 292 votes in favor and 173 against.

“We’re proud to see these communities support these bond issues to keep our education system moving forward,” schools Superintendent Ricky Durrett said after the votes came in Saturday evening.

Voter turnout for the Ruston bond proposal was 11.4% of the registered electorate.

The bond issue passage means an existing 16.75-mill property tax in the Ruston school zone will be extended for five years, while a 14-mill property tax in the Choudrant zone will be extended for seven years.

Neither tax would have immediately expired if Saturday’s measures had failed, but they would have shrunk to smaller rates as soon as this year.

Projects include a $5 million covered pavilion with a turf field at Ruston High School; renovations to the school’s softball field, baseball field and gymnasium; major roof repair at the high school; advanced body scanner machines to be used at the entrances of RHS and Ruston Junior High School and other security upgrades at both of those campuses.

“I appreciate all the work everyone put in to get the word out with what we were trying to do,” Durrett said. “I think it will be a huge win for our students, for all those coming up through the Ruston school system.”

The Choudrant package includes new classrooms at Choudrant Elementary School and a new multi-purpose room at Choudrant High.

“This is huge for them with the community growing, the schools growing, to be able to add some classroom space at the elementary school and have this room that will open up more classroom space at the high school,” Durrett said. “Really important for those campuses.”

The school board is set to begin issuing bonds to finance these projects in July, with the process to solicit bids and begin construction kicking off soon after that.