Perryville voted in favor of Prop K.I.D.S. during the August 4 election, securing the necessary funds for the school district to move forward on the new school, replacing the high school that was heavily damaged in the March 2025 tornado.
Superintendent Dr. Fara Jones said the school board is excited for the opportunity to finally move forward on the project and put a new school in the same spot the old one stood.
“We are super excited now with the passing of Prop K.I.D.S. that we’re going to be able to put a high school right back in that same footprint where the high school stood before,” Jones said. “So that is the start of the process and this passing last night by the majority of our community is so grateful and so exciting. And so our students deserve this. We’ve been waiting for this. And so we’re so excited to start the process of really going forward.”
Jones said she was cautiously optimistic heading into voting day as this proposition was less of a tax burden then the one that failed to pass earlier this year.
“There were so many things that were just still unknown [in April], we knew we needed a high school for our kids, but there were things such as FEMA support and a lot of other things that were just unknown at that time,” Jones said. “So the board was forced with making a decision to move forward to seek enough money to do the full project, because we just didn’t have any reassurance that we were going to get support. A huge change this time was that we knew we would have that support so we can really back off that ask and just ask for the minimum of what we needed, because we’re going to have that support with FEMA to go along with it to get this thing across the line.”
Jones said that now that the proposition has passed, they can finalize and make official the designs they have been working on with SAPP architects and Brockmiller Construction.
“A lot of those renditions and those drawings are preliminary and based on square-footage,” Jones said. “So now we can actually get into the actual design process, get more specific and get more pictures and photos and ideas and drawings out to the public now that we know for sure we have the support that we need.”
Jones thanked everyone involved with campaigning for the proposition, including the “Yes on Prop K.I.D.S Committee” that many students and parents served on.
“[The committee] worked diligently for our district,” she said. “Behind the scenes, in front of the scenes. Putting yard signs in town, door to door knocking, just really reaching out and providing as much information as possible. They really were such a support for the school district. Our intent was to inform everyone, answer any question that came our way so that everybody felt very, very informed. And that Prop K.I.D.S. Campaign Committee truly supported us.”
The measure passed 3,035 to 2,258. Jones said the school board will continue its efforts to be as transparent as possible throughout the process of building the new school.
“We will continue to offer those opportunities, to answer those questions,” Jones said. “We will still offer those landing page sites where we put information for people to go to constantly and have access to. We think that was really valuable and we want to continue doing that.”
Demolition of the current buildings started before the vote and continues through the summer. Jones said the goal is to have demolition complete or near complete by the time students return to classes. The estimate for the new school’s completion as of August 2026 is December of 2028 or January 2029.
