Litchfield Elementary School District discussed pulling a $100 million bond to create a new school and upgrade current school facilities and security.

The bond would earmark $48 million for a new school in the western part of the district, $40 million for school renovations and facility improvements to existing schools and $7 million for safety upgrades.

The saftey upgrades would go toward crisis notification systems, school and office vestibules, ballistic window film and surveillance cameras.

If a bond election is approved during May 9 governing board session. The proposed security improvements will be in place starting in fiscal year 2024 or 2025.

The new school could open for the 2027 school year. Two schools, Verrado Heritage and Verrado Elementary, are at max capacity, with Belen Soto Elementary trending toward capacity at 90%. 

Michael Vaughn, executive director of finance for Litchfield Elementary School District, said the two schools likely wouldn’t see relief soon, meaning the district will ad-lib in overcrowded schools. 

“Capacity being shown on this slide is a planning capacity and what we would like what we would like the maximum of the school to operate at, but we have been working with those individual principals, and there are plans in place to be able to operate next year,” he said during the April 25 board meeting.

The district plans to build the school in the western or northwestern part of the district boundary. No sites have been selected yet.