Purcell Public School patrons will have a chance to vote August 27 for a $19.465 million  bond proposal to improve student safety across the District.

If passed, the bond will allow the District to construct tornado shelters at the Elementary School and the Intermediate School. Those shelters will double as classrooms.

“We saw an opportunity to do safe rooms at other buildings,” Purcell Schools Superintendent  Dr. Sheli McAdoo said. “We saw we could add some classrooms at the other buildings while having safe rooms.”

Purcell Schools has already received a $3.3 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for another safe room at the junior high.

That grant will pay for 90 percent of the safe room and the District will have to foot the other 10 percent, about $300,000.

That shelter will not only be used as a competition basketball gymnasium for the junior high, but also as a shelter that will be open to the public after school hours.

“We hit a special window that allowed us to get the 90 to 10 grant,” McAdoo said.

Also included in the bond plans are to:

• A new 82-space parking lot  and bus loop at the junior high.
• Construct, furnish and equip a new ag barn.
• Renovate the gymnasium at the elementary school.

To pass, the proposition  must carry at least 60 percent of the vote.

The last day to register for the election in August 2.

McAdoo is encouraging patrons to register to vote.

“People need to register,” she said.

Purcell schools has a webpage with information on the proposal. It can be found at www.purcellps.org/page/bond.