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The Boulder Valley school board on Tuesday agreed to move forward with plans to place an estimated $349 million capital construction bond issue on the November ballot.

Superintendent Rob Anderson said he recommended the amount based on polling, an assessment of the district’s building critical maintenance needs and recommendations from a 23-member capital improvement committee.

“I’m recommending something to you that feels like it has really strong community support,” he told the school board.

The cost to homeowners for a $350 million property tax increase would be about $118 a year, or $9.83 a month, for a home valued at $600,000.

Projects include a new $27.7 million building for New Vista High School, a new $31.5 million school to relieve overcrowding at Erie’s Meadowlark School and about $36 million to support expanded career and technical education offerings.

School board member Lisa Sweeney-Miran said the alternative to asking voters to approve a bond issue is to let New Vista fall down around its students and place “hundreds of kids” in portable classrooms at Meadowlark.

“We really don’t have a choice other than to make these improvements,” she said.

Infrastructure improvements to New Vista, 700 20th St., were included in a previous bond issue. But they were put on hold while the district explored rebuilding it instead.

A working group recommended replacing the aging building after determining that renovating would cost almost as much as building new — and still wouldn’t fully address the nontraditional high school’s needs. If the bond issue is approved, a new building likely would open in fall 2025.

Meadowlark, a K-8 and the district’s only school in Erie, is at capacity this school year with 663 students and is expected to grow. More pressure also will be placed on Meadowlark as a large residential development, called Parkdale, is built on the eastern edge of the school district between Arapahoe and Baseline.

At build-out in five to 10 years, Parkdale is expected to push Meadowlark to 150% of capacity, based on an estimate of resident students attending.

The district’s career and technical education plans include creating pathways that start with career exploration in elementary school, adding additional industry certifications, renovating the Boulder Technical Education Center and expanding options at middle and high schools.

Along with those three projects, about $128 million is earmarked for addressing pressing building needs, such as replacing roofs and boilers. Another $5 million would go to accessibility playground improvements. The bond calculations also include $44.5 million for inflation, $68.4 million for overhead costs and $8.5 million for reserves.

The only priority identified by the district that wasn’t included was modernizing classrooms with furniture and fixtures at a cost of $25.7 million. Leaving out furniture replacement kept the price tag in a range with more support based on polling.

“if we don’t address these needs, they grow exponentially,” Anderson said. “While this doesn’t get us everywhere we need to be, it’s certainly a strong first step.”

A Magellan Strategies poll of 668 “likely voters” shows support at 60% or above for the low and middle range bond issue options, which were $290 million or $350 million. Generally, 60% is considered the critical support threshold needed in preelection polling.

For a higher amount, of $400 million, support dropped to about 50%. Overall support also drops to 54% if there are other tax increase questions on the ballot. Geographically, support was highest in Boulder and Louisville and lower in Broomfield and Lafayette.

The school board is expected to vote on the final project list and ballot language in August.

Boulder Valley’s last capital construction bond issue totaled $576.5 million and was approved by voters in 2014. The final amount grew to $677 million from bond sale premiums, rebates and interest earnings.

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