Madill Voters Approve Bond Issue for School Tornado Shelters

• Logan Layden
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  Logan Layden is a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma. He is a native of McAlester, Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. Logan spent three years as a state capitol reporter and local host of All Things Considered for NPR member station KGOU in Norman and six years as a reporter with StateImpact from 2011 to 2017. Most recently, he was news director for McAlester Radio before returning to public radio in 2020.

A number of school districts across Oklahoma are considering adding safe rooms after May’s deadly tornado in Moore, Okla., that killed seven children at Plaza Towers Elementary.

StateImpact has reported on Oklahoma City’s effort to install safe rooms at 22 of its schools, as well as Alex and Woodward’s plans to do the same.

Now, the district for the south-central Oklahoma town of Madill is joining in. Voters on Sept. 10 approved $2.66 million in bond issues, which The Daily Ardmoreite‘s Jennifer Lindsey reports includes “two new high school classrooms and three new elementary classrooms that will double as safe rooms.

On Wednesday, Madill Superintendent Jon Tuck told StateImpact the original plan called for 24 safe rooms — six at each of the district’s four schools.

Local voters rejected that more costly proposal before embracing the current one. Still, Superintendent Tuck says he’ll continue to push for safe rooms anytime new construction is considered.

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