Kingfisher Supt. Jason Sternberger has been making the rounds the last month, talking to anyone and everyone who is interested in the district’s latest bond proposal.

Voters are being asked Sept. 10 to pass a bond issue that will allow the district to build a new seventh and eighth grade center on the site that is currently the APB parking lot.

The center would alleviate space concerns at Gilmour Elementary, Heritage and Kingfisher Middle School as the district’s enrollment numbers continue to surge.

Since the board of education passed a resolution early last month calling for the election, Sternberger has spoken at the Rotary Club, Lions Club and maintained his open-door policy at his office.

Sternberger said public comment so far has focused on two main questions:

1. What do you plan to do with Gilmour Elementary?

2. Why are you not planning or allowing for future growth at the high school?

Should the bond issue pass by the necessary 60 percent super-majority, adding the seventh and eighth grade center will allow for some rearranging of classes.

Currently, KMS houses fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

The new alignment would move out the top two grades and move the fourth graders in with fifth and sixth grades at the current middle school.

Heritage School now has the third and fourth grades. Should the bond issue pass, it will house second and third grades.

That would leave pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grades at Gilmour, which currently houses those grades plus second grade.

In determining that building a new seventh and eighth grade center was the best route for the district, major renovations and upgrades for Gilmour, one of the district’s aging facilities, were considered during a number of meetings.

The consensus from those meetings was, essentially, the district would be “throwing good money at bad” if it poured millions of dollars into the structure.

However, Sternberger is adamant the district has no immediate plans to abandon Gilmour.

“We plan to embrace that building, its history and importance to the community,” Sternberger said.

Some of the necessary fixes include updated electrical, a new sprinkler system and other mandatory infrastructure needs.

“But we can’t do that when it’s at full capacity the way it is now,” Sternberger said. “If we are fortunate enough to pass the bond issue and rearrange our classes, that will free us up to make some necessary improvements we need to make at Gilmour. We just can’t go in and do it all at one time.”

Sternberger said the district would be able to fund those improvements from its general fund.

“We didn’t want to put anything in the bond issue for that,” he said.

As for the high school, an increasing number of students enrolled in virtual (online) classes, college classes and CareerTech is helping maximize existing space.

“If students are taking virtual, college or CareerTech classes, they’re not physically at KHS during those school hours,” Sternberger said.

“As all of those areas continue to offer more classes, it not only benefits our students, but also helps us with scheduling.”

Therefore, space is available for growth.

“There just isn’t the need for additional classrooms there now,” Sternberger said.