Durand schools seek $30.29M bond in 15 Shiawassee ballot proposals

Durand Area Schools is asking voters for permission to borrow up to $30,290,000 for buildings, buses and athletic fields — the largest single question on any Shiawassee County ballot this November, according to the unofficial list of proposals posted by the county clerk's elections office and dated Aug. 20.

The bond language says the money would go to erecting and remodeling school buildings, equipping and furnishing them, purchasing school buses, and preparing and equipping athletic fields, play fields, playgrounds and sites. State law bars bond money from being spent on repairs, maintenance, salaries or other operating costs, and the ballot language repeats that restriction.

For a Durand-area homeowner, the informational section of the proposal estimates the 2027 levy for these bonds at 0.14 mill — 14 cents per $1,000 of taxable value — which the district describes as a zero-mill net increase over the prior year's levy. The bonds could be outstanding up to 30 years, with an estimated simple average annual millage of 3.72 mills to retire the debt. The district expects to borrow from the State School Bond Qualification and Loan Program, with estimated principal of $9,781,210 and estimated interest of $21,618,901 over 30 years. Durand Area Schools already has $32.5 million in qualified bonds outstanding and roughly $4,215,341 in qualified loans.

In all, the clerk's list carries 15 proposals across the county. Two are already familiar to readers: the countywide senior citizen services millage renewal, which the county board sent to the ballot in July and which The Current reported would raise an estimated $1,370,677 in its first year at 0.4942 mills; and the City of Owosso parks millage renewal, which the council placed on the ballot at its July 20 meeting. The Owosso question asks to renew 0.5 mill for two years beginning with the 2027 levy, raising an estimated $170,000 in the first year for the Parks and Recreation Commission.

Corunna voters get three separate charter amendments. One would change the council's quorum from a fixed four members to a majority of the seats actually filled. A second would end ward-based council elections as terms expire, replacing them with three at-large seats elected to four-year terms with no ward residency requirement. The third would rewrite Chapters III through IX of the charter in gender-neutral language.

Durand voters have two city questions of their own, separate from the school bond: a charter amendment raising the purchasing threshold in Chapter 12 from $3,000 to $5,000, above which council approval and sealed bids are required, and a new 0.4-mill parks and recreation millage for five years, 2026 through 2030, estimated to raise about $35,000 in its first year.

The township questions are where the tax bills move most. Middlebury Township has two: a five-year, three-mill emergency services renewal consolidating two prior millages and raising an estimated $186,423 in the first year for fire, rescue and ambulance service, and a two-mill road maintenance levy that would reinstate a millage that expired at the end of 2024, raising an estimated $124,282. Hazelton Township asks to renew 1.5 mills for gravel and road rebuilding for 2028 through 2032, and separately asks voters to approve biweekly curbside recycling at $63 per unit per year — $5.25 a month — with a 96-gallon cart, starting January 2027 for three years. The ballot language is blunt about two points: property owners may not opt out, and if the proposal fails, no recycling will be offered.

Two townships are asking to help pay for the county's bus service. Bennington Township seeks up to 0.3333 mill for two years for the Shiawassee Area Transportation Agency, estimated at $50,540 in the first year; Owosso Charter Township seeks the same rate for four years, estimated at $59,207.72 in the first year. Rounding out the list, Shiawassee County property inside the Saginaw Intermediate School District would vote on renewing 0.9962 mill for career and technical education for 10 years, 2028 through 2037, plus a 0.0038-mill restoration.

What happens next: The list is marked unofficial, and the proof line at the bottom of each page — staff name and date proofed — is blank, so the wording can still change before the ballot is certified. Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. The clerk's office has not said when the certified proposal list and candidate list will be published; that remains an open question from our Sept. 2 story on the county's unofficial candidate filings.