Gilmer School Supt. Rick Albritton on Monday released a preliminary architectural drawing of the proposed new Gilmer High School, which is the centerpiece of the school district’s $36.2 million Nov. 5 bond issue election package.

The sketch by Longview architect Phil Thacker, published in today’s Mirror, is a “concept drawing, not a finished drawing,” Albritton said Thursday. The new building would not have a flat roof, the superintendent said.

Thacker is also making drawings of the two other proposed improvements in the bond issue—new classrooms at Bruce Junior High School and an indoor practice/multipurpose facility at the high school, said Albritton, who said he hoped to have final drawings of all the proposed buildings before election day.

The second of at least three town hall meetings scheduled on the election was to be held Thursday night at Gilmer Elementary School, after The Mirror’s deadline for this edition. Another such meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22, at Bruce Junior High.

GISD may also hold such meetings at the Pritchett Community Center and Glenwood Community Building, but no dates have been set, Albritton said.

Early voting for the election is scheduled 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays (Monday-Friday) from Oct. 21-Nov. 1 at the Upshur County Courthouse and at the school administration building, 500 S. Trinity. Mobile early voting is also scheduled at various times on school campuses.

(A brochure provided by the school about the election erroneously stated early voting would be held on certain dates in August and September.)

The bond issue package, which GISD says would require a tax increase of 25.35 cents per $100 valuation if all three propositions pass, is divided on the ballot into three separate propositions.

Proposition One is for constructing a 122,000 square-foot high school to replace the current one, portions of which were built starting in 1950.

This proposal would also include renovating the first floor of the old vocational building on the high school campus to house central administrative offices, now located in the aging building on Trinity St.

Cost of that proposition is $30,690,000. The current high school would be razed for use as a parking lot.

The new school, expected to be occupied by 2016, would be located somewhere on the school’s 40-acre site, possibly around and in front of the current music building.

Proposition Two includes funding for more science, fine art and self-contained classrooms at the junior high campus to replace an outlying building reportedly constructed in the 1960s. It also provides for more parking at the elementary and intermediate schools. Total cost would be $3,365,000.

Proposition Three, which would be done only if Proposition One passes, would add a $2,155,000 “multipurpose facility” at the high school for indoor practices for athletics, band, drill team, and possibly such events as career days.

School officials have cited several reasons for the proposed high school, saying the current building lacks heating and cooling in hallways; that its science facilities are inadequate; and that it has no more space to expand, among other issues.

More information is available at the school’s website at www.gilmerisd.org, where an approximately half-hour video of school board President Jeff Rash explaining the bond issue can be viewed. The video is also on the Internet site YouTube.