Okarche Public Schools won’t be annexing to a technology center in the near future.

That was assured at last Monday’s regular October meeting of the board of education.

Members voted 5-0 against a resolution calling for an election to annex with a technology center school district.

“The cost was the biggest deal,” said Heather Nance, the board’s president.

“I didn’t receive any calls, but other board members received a lot of calls from people not wanting it because of how much it would raise taxes.”

Had the resolution been passed and had voters approved the annexation at an election, it would have raised taxes by 12 to 15 mills for people in Okarche’s district boundaries, according to Superintendent Josh Sumrall.

The district is currently at 15 mills, so the bump could have doubled it.

Okarche currently has a $26.1 million bond issue on its tax rolls that was passed in 2016. It was passed to construct the new elementary school, high school gymnasium and other structures.

“Right now with the uncertainty of the economy and still paying that bond issue, the board didn’t feel right at this time asking patrons to essentially double the mills,” Sumrall said.

The closest technology centers to Okarche are Canadian Valley Technology Center just east of El Reno and Chisholm Trail Technology Center.

Sumrall said the tax increase would be 15 mills to annex with Canadian Valley and 12 mills with CTTC.

If passed, juniors and seniors would be allowed to attend the tech center to which Okarche would choose to annex.

Sumrall said a survey was sent to all current students in seventh-12th grades to gauge their interest in attending a technology center.

“Even though it would only be open to juniors and seniors, we still wanted to see if the seventh-10th graders would be interested once they got that age,” Sumrall said.

Of those polled, Sumrall said 52 responded they’d be interested in attending a tech center.

He said 122 didn’t respond.

“We took those as a ‘no,’” Sumrall said.

Of the current juniors and seniors, nine responded with an interest in attending.

Sumrall said it was estimated the district would send a technology center $2 million per year.

“I know it’s a debatable issue, but that’s a lot of money for that amount of students,” Sumrall said.

He said he’s putting together a more comprehensive information package to release to Okarche patrons, possibly this week.

He added that although there were several calls against raising the taxes, he also received calls from parents in favor of the issue.

Both Sumrall and Nance said the issue could be revisited in the future.

“We’re not saying ‘never,’” Sumrall said. “But we felt right now is not the right time to ask taxpayers to increase their taxes.”

Added Nance: “I hope we can do it in the future. I know our kids need it.”