Major repairs and upgrades at all five public schools in Central are on hold after a rare electoral defeat for this A-rated suburban Baton Rouge school system.
Central’s long-running winning streak with its voters ended Saturday when the Wildcat electorate rejected the reauthorization and five-year extension of a 23.65 mill property tax that has been on the books since 2009.
The tax would have allowed the school district, which was formed in 2007 and is currently home to about 4,600 students, to sell bonds that would have raised an estimated $35 million. The money would have financed, among other things, a new fine arts wing at Central High and a new prekindergarten building at Bellingrath Hill Elementary School…