LANSING - Roughly 30 city leaders met Thursday afternoon to begin developing plans to pass a multimillion dollar Lansing Public School District bond proposal.

The leaders - ranging from Pastor Melvin Jones of the Union Missionary Baptist Church to Mayor David Hollister - form the Lansing School Bond Committee, which convened at the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, 300 E. Michigan Ave., for its first working meeting.

The $338.5 million bond, based on an eight-year construction schedule, would be used to renovate about 40 Lansing schools. It would include the redevelopment of Pattengill Middle School, 1017 Jerome St..

Hollister, whose State of the City address Monday night centered on Lansing schools and the bond proposal, is co-chairing the bond committee.

“We see this as a challenge,” Hollister said to the committee, seated around an oval table in a third-floor conference room. “The election is 90 days from today. By March we have to have a plan not only organized, but implemented.”

While the improved schools won’t directly improve the lives of many MSU students, Hollister said students living in Lansing should vote for the proposal May 1 “because they believe in education, because they know the economy is changing dramatically and students need the best - they probably understand more than anyone.”

He said the bond will cost taxpayers less than $1 per day.

First-year medical student Danielle Gindlesberger, who lives in Lansing, said she doesn’t know whether she’ll go to the polls, but the bond’s price tag worries her.

“Being a student, that’s actually pretty expensive for me,” Gindlesberger said.

James Butler of IBM, who co-chairs the committee with Hollister, said the committee must work as much as necessary to convince city residents like Gindlesberger to pass the bond, and he won’t settle for less.

“I have an attitude in reference to winning - I have no tolerance for losing,” he said. “We can’t wait for the storm to blow over. The urgency of the moment demands we work in the rain.”