HOUGHTON — Houghton-Portage Township Schools´ $23 million bond proposal for an early childhood center at the Houghton Elementary School and other facility upgrades won a narrow victory Tuesday night. 

The measure passed 1,820 to 1,790 in unofficial results released Tuesday night. 

“On behalf of the Houghton-Portage Township board and all of our stakeholders, we’re just thankful and appreciate everyone who helped with the proposal, and thank the community for supporting and passing it,” Superintendent Anders Hill said Wednesday. “We’re humbled by the responsibility and appreciate the community investing in us.”

The bond measure will extend the current millage rate from its previous end date of 2029 to 2031, dropping off after that for the remainder of the 30-year measure. 

Plans call for the construction of a new early child care center at the elementary school which would house new classroom space for kindergarten and Young 5’s classes, with the potential for space for 4-year-olds. At the middle school building, it will fund the creation of a robotics lab, modernize and renovate facilities such as the wood shop and science labs, and add a new playground for middle school students at the current site of the bus stop. 

The district pursued the bond as a response to overcrowding problems at the schools, which have seen an 8% increase in enrollment since 2013. 

The proposal received extensive public criticism from the citizens group Concerned Citizens of the HPT School District. The group had criticized the cost of the proposal, which would reach $46 million with interest. It had also suggested the district add more caps on enrollment as a response to overcrowding, noting that 47% of district enrollment came from outside the district, the majority through the school of choice program.

Scott MacInnes, a group member and a former city manager of Houghton, said he had gotten calls Wednesday from people asking him to pursue options for contesting the result. He said he was disappointed in the outcome, but said it would be “full speed ahead” for the district.

He said people had been most surprised by the enrollment figures and the amount of existing debt the district had. 

“We got the information out that the school board didn’t want to give out, so people could easily calculate what it was going to cost them, what the total amount of the issue was,” MacInnes said. “I think that we were able to get out the numbers for the enrollment. The biggest issue I see is the impact it’s going to have on the other smaller districts. That’s going to be devastating to them.”

Wednesday, Hill said the district would work to keep the community “engaged and involved” through the next steps. He had no comment on the timeline for the project, saying it was pending the certification of the vote.

Also in the district, four candidates ran for two school board seats. Michael Salmi, who was appointed to the board last year, received the most votes with 1,370. Incumbent Brad Baltensperger collected the second-most votes with 1,229. Challenger Jason Evans finished narrowly behind at 1,226 votes, followed by incumbent Nels Christopherson with 1,050.