Bowling Green residents will have a chance Monday to comment on a proposed property tax increase being considered by the Bowling Green Independent School District’s Board of Education.

The proposed increase – an announcement of which was recently published in the Daily News as required by state law – would raise the current rate of 78.1 cents per $100 for real and personal property to 83.5 cents. The change would generate $11,288,868.06 in revenue, according to the published notice.

A public hearing will be at 6 p.m. Monday at 1211 Center St. at the school central office to gather feedback.

Superintendent Gary Fields said the money will go toward planned renovations of Bowling Green High School, which is nearly 50 years old.

Currently, the district has the ability to borrow $15 million toward the project. That would be enough to cover the costs of some initial renovations, but Fields has said the district wants to avoid a drawn-out, multiphase renovation process.

“We could be looking at an entire generation of students for the 15 to 20 years that will only know Bowling Green High School as under construction,” he said.

However, should the board approve the increase, the district could afford to borrow more money and do more of the work up front in an initial phase, followed by a second phase in the future.

“If the board approves the nickel, then that would allow us to increase our bonding capacity to $27 million,” Fields said, adding the state would provide additional money and bring the district’s bonding capacity to roughly $37 million.

Frank “Hamp” Moore, a school board member, said he hasn’t decided how he’ll vote yet and added that he’ll listen carefully to comments from community members.

Although the school board doesn’t lightly ask for a tax increase, Moore said it also knows community members expect the best quality the district can provide. Bowling Green High School’s aging facilities and outdated design are making that difficult, he said.

“We all feel the need to provide the best facilities for education,” he said. “When we are trying to teach chemistry in a lab which is nearly 50 years old and trying to start an academy that will teach students to become medical assistants, we believe that there ought to be facilities that are state of the art.”

Fields said the renovations would focus on creating space for the high school’s new freshman leadership academy and a planned medical arts academy, as well as replacing science labs.

The district is looking to start construction next spring, with a completion date of January 2020.

Moore said the high school’s design of overlapping circles is also outdated. The high school was originally built in an open layout format in which classrooms had dividers rather than real walls. Although it was thought to be conducive to learning at the time, the design fell out of favor and walls were added later.

“It left a lot of classrooms with no windows and left a layout that was less than desirable, in my opinion,” Moore said.

Moore said he’ll continue listening to community members’ opinions on the matter Monday.

“It’s our chance to hear what other folks think,” he said.