HULBERT, Okla. — Administrators for the Hulbert Riders are proposing a $9 million plan to make long-awaited improvements, but only if the town is willing to saddle up for a 28% property tax increase in the Feb. 10 bond election.
Supporters note that most of the town has a loved one enrolled in the district, graduated, or played sports there, and knows firsthand the conditions faced.
WATCH: Hulbert Public Schools community mounts campaign for bond election
"I think a lot of (opponents) feel like it doesn't apply to them maybe if their children are not here anymore," Hulbert native and Hulbert Public Schools grandparent Andrea McGowan said. "But this is the foundation of our community."
Murals and school spirit-related signs around town echo that sentiment, but finding at least three-fifths of voters willing to pay for relocating the football bleachers, locker rooms, and buying a new track downhill is quite the hill to climb with a 28% tax hike.
Wrestlers Addison Petch and Levi Kirk said they'd love it if future athletes had better training surfaces.
"I'm hoping that it'll improve the track because we run like 5-10 miles a week, so I feel like that would help us a lot," Petch said.
"Do you want (your kids) to go to a small school (that's) financially struggling (and) academics not so well? I mean, overall, you would pay an increase in taxes, but long-term it's a great investment," Kirk added.
In addition to athletic work, the district wants more room for future classrooms, to replace decades-old flooring, to make playground surfaces accessible, to add outdoor awnings for wet school days, and to replace a few rusting school buses.
"The school is old. We don't quite have enough outlets even in every classroom," Hulbert Middle-High School principal Cole Purget told 2 News on Feb. 2. "So if we could upgrade our technology – even just really basic infrastructure – that would be a huge help for us."
A previous bond proposal failed in 2023.
The revamps, Superintendent Jolyn Choate, a Hulbert native, argues, can keep the school both competitive and responsive to the community's demands.
"When it does come to a bond, this is the one and only opportunity where residents are able to see that every bit of what they're voting for they can see in the school district," Choate said.
UPDATE: Both bond measures in the Feb. 10 election failed to reach the needed 60% threshold to pass.
Item 1 reached exactly 50% while the transportation bond measure got just under 56% of the vote.
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