At a Missoula County Public School Board meeting Tuesday night, trustees and school officials agreed on an amount for the upcoming bond issue request of $158 million.

Communications Director for MCPS Hatton Littman said the decision was the result of over two years of work and deliberation.

"Essentially, the outcome of the meeting was that trustees readdressed he total dollar figure, which at this point is $158 million to cover both the elementary and the high school bonds," Littman said. "A majority of the trustees articulated a desire to stick with $158 million even in the face of some evidence that there may be somewhere between $5 and $10 million of additional costs that they need to consider."

Littman broke down the numbers for both elementary and high school needs.

"The elementary district, and that is for voters who live within the city limits, that is an $88 million bond project," she said. "The high school district, which is city as well as county voters, that's a $70 million bond project."

Littman said should the bond issues pass, construction on the most needed projects would begin almost immediately.

"We would see actual construction in the summer of 2016," she said. "We would certainly begin the design and bidding phase almost immediately this winter and going into 2016."

For a homeowner in the city, property taxes on a home valued at about $200,000 would be a little over $200 annually, and for county voters the taxes would be $70 per year.

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