FARMINGTON — With preliminary vote totals showing Davis School District’s $475 million bond proposal has passed, school officials are moving ahead and putting their plans into action.

At the top of the list are two projects in northern Davis County — construction of a new junior high school in West Point and the rebuilding of Sunset Junior High School. Those two projects, plus the planned reconstruction of Bountiful Elementary, are the top priorities, though the funds are to be used on numerous other plans as well, the district said in a post-election message.

While officials maintain that the bond won’t require an increase in property taxes, “we understand the responsibility placed upon us by taxpayers,” said the district statement. “We are certain these projects will have a positive impact on the educational experience for generations to come.”

According to preliminary vote totals, the $475 million bond question received 52,969 favorable votes, 56.3% of the total, and 41,044 no votes, 43.7%. Voting culminated Tuesday. Now, work will move forward quickly.

The new West Point junior high school will be built at the southeast corner of 700 South and 4500 West, with plans to be finished by December. According to the preliminary timeline, bids for the work will be sought next January. Construction could start as soon as next February with the new school done by the fall of 2025.

That project, plus a planned elementary school in West Point or Syracuse, has a price tag of $135 million, according to the plans posted online.

Plans for the rebuild of Sunset Junior High School at 1610 N. 250 West are to be finished in January, with bids to be sought in March. Construction could start in March with the work finishing in the fall of 2025.

A contractor was picked last September by the Davis school board to handle the two junior high school projects, contingent on passage of the bond.

The Bountiful Elementary work is to move forward in 2023, with expected completion in the fall of 2025.

“We would like to carry the great spirit and pride of Bountiful Elementary into a new building, and we look forward to the opportunity to expand our arts and academic programs with an updated facility,” Kristin McDonough, the principal of the school, said in a statement. Notably, she said, a new building will provide “plenty of space for students to learn and grow.”

The Sunset Junior High and Bountiful Elementary rebuild projects are expected to cost $140 million.

Here are some of the other schools slated to get $135 million in remodeling, expansion and other work between them and the expected date the work is to be finished:

• Bountiful High, fall 2025.
• Clearfield High, fall 2025.
• Layton High, fall 2026.
• Kaysville Jr. High, fall 2026.
• Burton Elementary in Kaysville, fall 2026.
• Vae View Elementary in Layton, fall 2027.
• Clinton Elementary, fall 2024, depending on the timeline of the planned widening of 1800 North in front of the school.

About $60 million is to be spent on other projects, including the addition of air conditioning systems in several schools auditoriums or gyms, the addition of tracks or turf fields at three junior high schools and more.

The expansion of the tax base in the growing county, plus the retirement of other school debt in years to come, should preclude the need to boost taxes, the district maintains.

Davis School District received support from voters in 2015 for a $298 million bond. Weber School District voters in Weber County, meantime, approved a $279 million bond proposal in 2021 while Ogden voters OK’d an $87 million bond issue for the Ogden School District in 2018.

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