BATON ROUGE -- The Central Community School System has a construction funding tax renewal up for a vote in the May 3rd election.

The Central School system is hoping to borrow $35 million of governmental bonds. This vote would continue the school's current property tax rate of 23.65 percent to pay back the $35 million over 20 years.

"This has been on the book since 2009. This is not a new tax, it was originally voted on by the citizens in 2009. This is an opportunity for us to renew this to bring in 35 million dollars for facility improvements around the district," Central Superintendent Jason Fountain said.

For a household worth $200,000 that is homestead-exempt, it would come out to around $295 for the whole year.

The school system hopes to put the money into multiple projects. One would be a new pre-k classroom building at Bellingrath Hills Elementary.

Another would be a new fine arts wing with a welcoming frontage on Wax Road, and an improved baseball complex at Central High School.

Other projects include playground improvements at Tanglewood Elementary School and major library renovation at Central Intermediate and Middle School.

"You have to spend the money within three years on a bond issue when you do it like this. We would immediately jump into the planning phase through this," Fountain said.

Fountain says their plans are already in place for what will happen if it passes.

"I've said from the beginning, I want our school system, to be a model for this community. I want our community to be proud of our school system, that's our number one goal," Fountain said.

WBRZ spoke with residents of the Central area to find out what they thought of the measure. Quite a few were unfamiliar with what the vote entailed.

One parent who lives near the high school said he supports it for his kids.

"If a city decides they want to house their own school system, they need to pay for it. We're for it, we have three children, one of them's graduating from Central High," Howard Wright said.

A few others did not support the vote, saying despite the rate not increasing, property values are not the same as they were in 2009 meaning they will be paying more.

Polls open at 7 a.m. on the May 3 election. They will close at 8 p.m.