The School Board issued a renewed plea to voters to approve a town bond that would pay for the reconstruction of the Nashua Road intersection with Route 101, improving access to the new high school.

The $8 million town bond includes $3 million for the upgrade, with the rest intended for the annual road rehabilitation program, according to Town Councilor Mike Izbicki. A separate proposal for raising $170,000 in taxes for the construction of an emergency access way through Chestnut Drive is on the school ballot.

Both projects were originally intended to be on the school ballot as one, but the state ruled that working on the highway did not fall under the school district’s jurisdiction.

School Board Chairman Cindy Chagnon, who has lived in Bedford since the early 1970s, said some voters have forgotten that traffic lights at Meetinghouse Road and Wallace Road were installed after fatal accidents occurred at those intersections.

She said the school district and Town Council are trying to avoid the same fate for high school drivers.

“I don’t want there to be a fatality that forces the issue on Nashua,” said Chagnon. The mere idea that could happen to a high school driver, she added, still gives her nightmares.

School Board members are planning a special, half-hour BCTV show to make their case.

Board member David Sacks sought to clarify misinformation he said had been spread at the recent Town Council and School Board candidates’ debates. Sacks said the claim that the town could have built the connector road for about $6.6 million and reimbursed 80 percent by the state did not convey the full story.

If there had been any state aid, Sacks said it is likely it would not have been received for about 10 to 15 years. The Nashua Road project, by contrast, is half the cost of the connector road. The town is also appealing to the state for some financial aid for Nashua Road.

The board will also be sending out a letter to voters in March, providing more information on the articles on the school ballot.

Board member Steve Beals said the tax rate has been and will continue to be less than what the district had projected before building the high school.

If approved, the operating budget for 2008-09 will be $55,057,097, a 2.6 percent increase. District administrators said enrollment is expectecd to rise by 4.5 percent next year, not counting the addition of the junior class.

The district now expects the tax increase, or impact, of the two new schools and the reconfiguration of the district to be $1.34 on the next tax bill, 15 cents less than originally anticipated.

For 2007, the impact was $2 per $1,000 in assessed property value, again less than the anticipated rate of $2.56, board members said. Likewise, the impacts in 2005 and 2006 were less than what had been forecasted.