NEOSHO, Mo. — Voters in an area school district approved a multi-million dollar upgrade for one of their educational programs, and the best part, is it won’t require a tax increase.
The Neosho School District has been a construction zone for quite some time thanks to a multi-million dollar bond issue passed back in 2020.
The centerpiece: the soon-to-be-completed Performing Arts Center
“Set to open to open within the next month or so which will kind of almost be the end of the 2020 project, we still have some work to do um in the choir room and the locker rooms to finish that project,” said Dr. Jim Cummins, Neosho R- 5 Superintendent of Schools.
That state-of-the-art facility will allow students and the productions they put on, to offer visitors effects of sights and sounds not currently available, but there are other parts of that project that might not be as visible as the new home for the theatre program, but just as important.
“We’ve got some work going on out at the bus barn, um we’ll be doing some remodeling at the high school and our FACS classrooms, um certainly some, some security upgrades across the districts and then uh elementary playgrounds will be getting a lift as well,” said Cummins.
Soon, another district program is going to experience a similar upgrade in technology, now that voters decided on Tuesday to continue that current tax levy to take the AG program to the next level, replacing the current building constructed in the 1970s.
“Allow us to have live animal work but also we’ve got a meat slab or a food science lab, um animal science lab, plant science labs, so we’ve really been able to um elevate our learning opportunities by creating 21st-century lab space,” said Cummins.
He says the plan is to finish that facility in late 2024 or early 2025.
He says getting that process started will definitely be a topic for discussion at the upcoming meeting on the 17th.
