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Late August deadline for OPS vote on facilities bond issue

The Omaha Public Schools board has until August 29th to vote on a facilities bond issue for it to go before voters in November.

The $683 million bond issue was discussed at Monday’s OPS board meeting. Originally a $1.1 billion plan, the scaled-back version includes nine additions, six replacement schools, and three new schools. The largest category of spending is $350 million for capital improvements, replacements, and renovations.

Jeramie Cobb of Jacobs Program Management Company, who’s working with OPS on the plan, says a school and project-specific breakdown of the plan will be available once it’s approved.

"Once we finalize our number, you’ll be able to see how much money is going to go in to that school, what items are going to be targeted, and it’ll also provide an executive summary which shows a little bit about the process, along with some of the schedule we’re going to incorporate as well once we come to a conclusion on a recommended plan."

$196 million would be spent on increasing capacity, and $135 million on fire, life safety, and technology upgrades.

OPS received 900 responses to a facilities master plan survey.