The Purcell Board of Education wants a gym that will double as a storm shelter at the junior high school and classroom buildings that will double as storm shelters at the elementary and intermediate schools.

The board is asking voters to approve a $19 million bond to make it happen.

In addition to the storm shelters, the board intends to use the money to make improvements to the elementary school gym, construct a new parking lot at the junior high school and build a new agricultural barn.

Superintendent Sheli McAdoo said the elementary gym “is old, but it has good bones,” so a full tear-down-and-replace will not be necessary.

McAdoo said the proposed junior high school gym/storm shelter is also intended to be used for competitions, hence the request for additional parking lot. She also said the school district’s agricultural barn is in disrepair.

“It’s just not cost advantageous for us to do any remodel on it,” McAdoo said. “It needs a whole new facility.”

The proposed projects and their estimated costs as follows:

• Classroom/storm shelter building at the elementary school for $ 5.57 million
• Improvements to the elementary school gym for $1.795 million
• Classroom/storm shelter building at the intermediate school for $5.39 million
• Gym/storm shelter at the junior high school for $4.945 million
• New parking lot at the junior high school for $1.25 million
• New agricultural barn for $515,000

The special election is set to be held on Aug. 27.

During the board’s regularly scheduled meeting Monday evening, McAdoo announced the Oklahoma Opioid Abatement Board awarded Purcell Public Schools a $30,000 grant to offer a life skills program to students in third through tenth grade. The program is set to use training materials from Botvin LifeSkills Training, “an evidence-based substance abuse and violence prevention program,” according to their website.

The board also voted to hire a new assistant basketball coach, Rarsenio Washington, who has experience coaching basketball for Oklahoma Royal Legacy, a 501(c)(3) basketball club for student athletes.