GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — It’s back to the drawing board for the Grand Haven Public School board after a $155 million bond proposal was rejected Tuesday by voters in Ottawa County.

The bond would have updated the infrastructure of 11 GHAPS facilities and funded the building of a new Lakeshore Middle School. The current middle school is 70 years old and is no longer efficient, according to Superintendent Scott Grimes.

“We just need to start addressing our aging buildings,” he said. “Our elementaries are going to be in this spot in 10 years. Our middle school is 70 years old. So it’s just something that we have to continuously keep out there, because the need isn’t going away.”

While the bond failed, a Grand Haven Area Public Schools mileage renewal did pass. The $16 million raised goes to year operating costs across the district.

“We had a number of school districts that had millage renewals,” said Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck. “So the typical millages that fund our school districts. A lot of those were up for a renewal and those largely passed.”

Roebuck said voter turnout for a May special election was higher than usual. About 20% of the county voted.

“A lot of times we will see turnout in the single digits: 9 to 11 to 15%. But we did have some larger ballot questions in certain pockets of our communities yesterday,” Roebuck said.

Grand Haven’s school board will meet this month to discuss election results. Grimes said they will likely send out a survey or several to understand voters’ concerns, prior to resubmitting the bond proposal.

Grimes said they’ll “collect some data and figure out what we can do to maybe change or revise our proposal so that it’s more palatable and it can be supported by more in our community.”

The bond proposal could be up for another vote as early as this November.