Voters in the Adel-DeSoto-Minburn School District overwhelmingly approved a $58 million bond referendum for additional facilities and upgrading others.

According to the Dallas County Auditor’s Office, voters approved the special measure at 79-percent, surpassing the minimum of a supermajority needed of 60-percent. ADM School District Superintendent Greg Dufoe gives his reaction after seeing that kind of support from the community.

“To get virtually 80-percent ‘yes’ vote was significant and really exciting, especially with the bond issue was pretty significant. The $58 million is very significant dollar amount, no question. It’ll kick start the work on our master plan. We couldn’t be more excited.”

Dufoe attributes the successful first attempt to pass the bond referendum to the work that started one year ago and how they were able to get information out to the public.

“This was the, perhaps the driving force in getting people to the polls, so we saw a very good turnout and that’s what we wanted. Whether the bond passed or failed, we wanted the turnout to be very strong. We feel like we got the information out and people were able to make an educated vote, whether it was a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ and that really guided our work. We pumped out a ton of information. Our website was rich and thorough. We just worked really hard to make sure people felt like they had the information they needed to make an educated voting decision, and we feel like we did that.”      

Plans with the $58 million project is building a new high school, converting the intermediate school into a preschool, renovating the current high school into a middle school, and building a new athletic complex with a football stadium, baseball and softball fields with the new high school.