Voters may be faced with an important decision this spring as Niles Community Schools began the process of investigating whether or not to place a bond issue on the May ballot at Monday’s regular school board meeting.

It is too early to know how much the district might ask voters for or what projects the bond might pay for, according to Superintendent Michael Lindley.

However, Lindley said it would be a “multi-million dollar project.”

The next step will be having an architectural firm perform a feasibility study of all buildings within the school district.

The board on Monday authorized Lindley to contact TMP Architecture, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, to do that work. The district last used TMP for the New Tech project.

The study will put a price tag on potential projects and help the school board determine how and if it will proceed.

“It is a whole lot of what ifs ands and buts right now,” said Lindley, adding that he assumes the board will focus on mechanical and electrical systems. “We know we have boilers that are on borrowed time. That is not a question. We can’t get parts for them and they aren’t energy efficient.”

Several administrators spoke in favor of the work TMP did on the New Tech project.

Lindley said TMP projects have had a 90-percent success rate in having bond issues pass the first time they go before voters.

In addition to doing the feasibility study, TMP would provide guidance to the board on what projects might work in the Niles community.

In order to place a bond issue before voters this spring, the board will need to decide what projects it wants to pursue and how much it will ask voters for by December.