Long Beach High School bond vote

On Thursday, Long Beach residents voted on a $20 million bond that would upgrade and bring improvements to Long Beach High School.

The line was out of the door at Long Beach High to vote for the $20 million bond to upgrade the school. Of course, this massive turnout had voters on both side of the fence.

As News 25 talked to locals waiting in line to vote, the topic of conversation was the possible increase in property taxes if the bond were to pass. “They are portraying that if I got a house for $200,000 you are going to pay $250 a month. At the same time, these people who are getting exempt, they are going to take the money from somebody.”

“My property taxes will increase also. We have to have a school that educates our children and educates them properly. In order to do that, we have to pay a little bit more.”

Long Beach School Board Principal Tim Pierce said, “People who move to Long Beach, they don’t move to Long Beach for the cheap taxes. They move to Long Beach because we have the best schools.”

Plans for renovating the school also includes safety concerns and upgrading the technology. Resident Elizabeth Fortenberry has grandchildren who go to school in the Long Beach School District and wants them to have a quality education. “Whether we like it or not, our children have to compete in the electronic world.”

“They have their cell phones just like me and they have more power than the Windows driven systems that I’ve seen inside of here.”

The Long Beach School District needs 60 percent plus one for the bond to pass. In 2005, there was a similar bond that was voted down. Will this happen again 13 years later? “We already owe 4.3 plus million dollars that hasn’t been paid off.”

Or will Long Beach High School be renovated in the winter of 2021? “If we don’t maintain the ability to have the best rated school system that we can give our children, those people that were moving to Long Beach will be moving to these surrounding communities.”