Pass Facility Requests

Passing facility requests can be hard. There is so much uncertainty and noise to wade through as you try and find out what your voters actually want and are willing to support. That’s where Perspectives’ Comprehensive Voter Approval Assessment comes in. 

Our Comprehensive Voter Approval Assessment is specifically designed for school districts that have tried, and failed, to pass bonds in the past. Our assessment will provide you with the essential information your district and board must understand to pass a facilities request:

  1. Overall perception of your school district: For example, if voters feel your district did not handle the COVID-19 situation correctly, they may not care about facilities at all.

  2. Belief that the district has facility needs: If voters do not believe your district has facility needs or do not think they should be addressed, it will not matter what plan or proposal is offered.

  3. Support for a plan to address those needs: Is the proposed solution acceptable, and if not, why? Some of the reasons voters reject plans include what is, or is not, in the proposal, how long it will take to complete, which projects are done first, etc.

  4. Willingness to pay for the plan: Even if voters support the plan, they may not like how much it costs. However, they may be willing to support a lower cost plan.

Our Comprehensive Voter Approval Assessment is your source for accurate, reliable information about your voters’ feelings on these topics and more, so that when you go back to your voters, they will approve your request.

 

See our Work in Action

Hastings Area School System (Hastings, Michigan)

Perspectives Consulting Group’s 2023 Community Survey: After details of the proposed bond, including its cost to taxpayers, were provided to survey respondents, respondents were then asked if they would vote to approve the bond. Just under two-thirds (61.8%) said they would vote to approve the bond.

- Perspectives Consulting Group Report, 2023 Community Survey Report for Hastings Area School System, page 40.

Voters pass Hastings Area Schools bond. The Hastings Area School System asked voters to approve $17.47 million bond proposal for facility upgrades. The proposal passed with 2,321 votes— 58%.

- Fox 17 West Michigan, August 9, 2023

Portage Public Schools (Portage, Michigan)

Perspectives Consulting Group’s 2021 Elementary Community Survey: After details of the proposed bond, including its cost to taxpayers, were provided to survey respondents, respondents were then asked if they would vote to approve the bond. Slightly less than two-thirds (62.6%) said they would vote to approve the bond.

- Perspectives Consulting Group Report, 2021 Elementary Community Survey Report for Portage Public Schools, page 43.

Portage voters pass $175M bond for five new elementary schools. According to unofficial election results from the Kalamazoo County Clerks Office, 1,788 voters, or 66%, approved of the bond while 904 people, or 34%, voted against it.

- MLive, August 2021.

Mattawan Consolidated School District (Mattawan, Michigan)

Perspectives Consulting Group’s 2013 Community Survey: Almost seventy percent of respondents (68.5%) indicated that they would vote to approve a 30-year bond to pay for one of these new building options.

- Perspectives Consulting Group Report, 2013 Community Survey Report for Mattawan Consolidated School District, page 47.

Mattawan overwhelmingly backs $78.5 million school bond issues. With seven of 10 precincts reporting, 64 percent of voters backed Proposal 1, a $62.32 million request for two new elementary schools, and 65 percent approved Proposal 2, which sought $16.3 million to fund upgrades to the middle and high schools.

- MLive, November 2014

 

Our years of experience and expertise conducting Comprehensive Voter Approval Assessments not only result in accurate projections but provide the guidance your district will need to develop a facility request your voters will support. We will show you how to develop relationships with your voters that address their concerns. We will identify the information you will need to provide to gain voter support, build trust, and deepen relationships with your voters. Finally, our analysis will reveal a clear profile of the voters who are most likely to change their minds about your facility request.

Contact us for more information about our Comprehensive Voter Approval Assessment and how it can help your district pass your bond at the next election.