The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Patrons of the Little Cypress-Mauriceville school district will vote in May on a $40 million bond issue to build a new high school and repair other schools.

The school board Monday night agreed to call the election for May 10 after hearing a report last week from a special citizens Vision and Planning Committee.

The proposal is for the new high school to be built at the same site as the current high school, on Hwy 87.

New high school buildings from the 1999 bond issue, including the band hall and field house, will remain.

Also, the renovated auditorium will stay.

Plans also call for the district to call another bond election in three years to raise money to build a new junior high to combine the Little Cypress Junior High and the Mauriceville Junior High.

Sherry Combs, district information director, said the three years between the elections will allow the district to find a site to build the combined junior high.

Plans are to build the new junior high on land between the two communities.

The current Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School was built in 1970 soon after the two school districts consolidated.

Assistant Superintendent Greg Perry said the high school looks fine from the highway, but the classrooms and the interior are in poor shape.

Combs said the bond issue will also include repairs that need to be done at other schools, including the two junior highs and Mauriceville Elementary.

The repairs are needed to keep the schools operating, she said.

The LC-M school district has 3,750 students.

Pauline Hargrove is superintendent and Ernest Egulf is the president of the board of trustees.

Other board members are Donna Scheer, Dr.

Keith Kyle, Rick Gandy, Danielle Heil, Brenda Mott and Don Anderson.

The West Orange-Cove school district voters in November approved a bond election to build a new elementary school to combine the ones in the district.