PRELIMINARY . . . PRELIMINARY . . . NOT FINAL . . . NOT FINAL
These are the plans that were presented at the school board meeting Thursday night (7-9-09).
They show the new elementary school being built on the northwest corner of the current junior high / high school.
Those of us present thought it was a good plan.
It includes a FEMA safe room (the gym), enclosed playground, a separate bus drive, the high school front door on the east, etc.
No action was taken on the plans - that will come later, possibly at Monday's school board meeting, maybe at the August meeting.
If you want more information, contact a school board member or come to the meetings.
There were about 2 dozen at Thursday's meeting.
It sounds like a good step forward. Hopefully many citizes will attend the meeting on Monday!
This appears to be an ideal use of existing space.
I've not been able to attend any of the recent meetings, so I give a big thanks to Mom70x7 for posting this. I think it looks good and much more efficient than the first design. Could you share some info such as building materials? Cost?
Thanks Mom70x7 for the good information.
I'll try to attend Monday night's meeting and write a good story for Prairie Star.
Who is going to pay for it?
The tax payers, apparently. :P
Diane -
I don't know if it will be "sprinkled" or not. If it was mentioned, it wasn't one of the details I remember. I don know they didn't want to do a direct addition on the current facilities. If they did, we'd have to retrofit the current building with sprinklers.
Same situation with the building materials - I remember parts of the discussion. There will be brick up the sides, probably 8 feet high.
The roofs are not flat roofs, they're all slanted slightly.
Several ways were mentioned about the building being "green." I don't remember them. Some of the other attendees probably remember that information better.
Average size of the classrooms is 30x30 - definitely larger than current classrooms, but we're combining classrooms, so the need for the larger size is very justifiable.
Financing - one of the discussions at an earlier meeting was about 20-year verses 25-year bonds. That discussion included the lower tax increase per year with more interest paid because of the longer time frame. I don't remember the specifics.
I repeat - come to Monday's meeting (and future meetings) or talk to a school board member. The members have been very open to discussion and different ideas. I feel they're really trying to get a sense of what the school district patrons want.
THe diagram is hard to read, is this correct,
they have set up
2 Preschool rooms, 2 Kindergarten rooms, 1 1st grade room, 1 2nd grade rooom, 1 3rd grade room, 1 4th grade room, 1 5th grade room, 2 6th grade rooms, 2 resource rooms, a title 1 room, Music room, Gym
Anything else?
Quote from: DolphinsLEM on July 12, 2009, 07:47:10 PM
THe diagram is hard to read, is this correct,
they have set up
2 Preschool rooms, 2 Kindergarten rooms, 1 1st grade room, 1 2nd grade rooom, 1 3rd grade room, 1 4th grade room, 1 5th grade room, 2 6th grade rooms, 2 resource rooms, a title 1 room, Music room, Gym
Anything else?
The gym will be a hardened community FEMA shelter with bathrooms. The labels for the rooms are just to identify them. If we have 50 1st graders we will certainly have more than one first grade room. The plan allows for two more rooms than we are using in the current enrollment. It allows for expansion but not more than the enrollment that we had ten years ago.
Don't read too much in to the details.
The image you are viewing is just a preliminary sketch. The number of total square feet is the only thing you should be concerned with at this point. Every thing on the plan is just for design dollars and scope of work. The layout and details are too be done after the bond issue is passed.
The issue right now is are we willing to build 30,000sq ft of school for about $150 a square foot. We are trying to design the building now only to find out how much building we can build for our dollar.
Quote from: Diane Amberg on July 11, 2009, 04:31:15 PM
Will it be sprinklered?
According to Kansas fire codes the building would only have to sprinkled if it housed more than 500 students. This is the reason the building will be built 30ft away from the existing structure. The old building is built in the seventies but is not sprinkled as it was not required at the time. The building size is such that it will have to have at least one interior fire wall.
The sprinkling issue is bigger than just putting in a system in the building. There has to be enough water available to sprinkle at a certain flow rate to be used for fire suppression. If we have to sprinkle I think we will have to do massive infastructure improvements to our municiple water system. If we can drain the water tower in 45 minutes with just one truck the fact that the school is a mile of pipe away from the water source is an issue. We have hydraunts close to the school but we have a limited (50K)gallons of water available.
PEP,
Good report and explanations. Thanks.
Quote from: Diane Amberg on July 12, 2009, 08:51:31 PM
No art room?
Every room is an
art room..........as well as every teacher is a music instructor, we currently have no elementary music program but are planning for it with a big room......I guess.
If you notice the eliminated computer room. It serves no purpose in the modern age. It is also cheaper to buy every student in the school a computer and have it in their class room than to dedicate a room for that purpose. Some of the more vocal teachers wanted a dedicated IT guy to handle this new move to electronic learning because it eats up their teaching time fixing computers.
I don't remember having a specific guy to hand out the chalk...........We don't have chalkboards anymore.......Did we have a dry erase person?... We must certainly need a smart guy for the new smart boards that will be in every elementary classroom....
Planned obsolescence......
There's also a planned library, to the left of the main entrance, as you come in the front door.
I know it's hard to tell from the drawing, but the playground for the grade school looks kind of close to the highway?
This is not a done deal despite what some would like to believe.
It is a done deal.
We have a plan for a new elementary school that will be put on the ballot for the public to vote on.
We decided to present a plan with the project as complete as possible to be as clear and well thought out as possible instead of just saying we need 10 million dollars to build new school. We have had open meetings with all members of the public from across the entire district. We have been told from the community that this is what they would like to see done with the school. It will be more cost effective in the long run.
The goal is to quit spending every spare dollar on capitol improvements, bussing, redundant teaching positions, and repairs for the next 20 years and spend money on better programs and teaching.
It is very good deal.
We could now use a principal if any of you know where we could get a good used one.
Positions open: Music, Spanish, elementary principal.........A SPANISH MUSICIAN with GOOD MANAGEMENT SKILLS>
I wish that those in the community (meaning the West Elk county community, not just Howard, Severy, or Moline) that are so against a new more efficient grade school, would come to these meetings to hear the facts. Then they would see how it would benefit all in the county. Do people realize that if we don't do something to make our district more cost efficient, then the state can come in and close us down and send our children to Eureka, Sedan, etc. Then Elk county could no longer claim to provide such a wonderful education to its youth. See what your property values do then.
Go into this with an open mind and get the facts. It may surprise you.
Tobina - The elementary playground is west of the proposed school - on the opposite from the highway.
And . . .
SDM - You're right, it's not a done deal. It still needs to be voted upon by the school district patrons. The layout is pretty well fixed, though, following the working meetings the school board has held. Tweaking is still being done. If there are major objections to the design, and those objections turn out to be valid, then I think the school board members would be interested and listen. There has been a lot of discussion at the meetings I've attended, and it sounds like there was that same free flowing of ideas at the meetings I've not attended.
I think it's a good design. I think it's a workable project.
The board is looking at having another special meeting, date still to be set, to discuss bond issues and more facilities issues. Paula will probably announce that meeting on this forum. Plan on attending.
Will the elementary students be using the existing cafeteria? What is the proposed plan for meals?
Every one will utilize the same cafeteria but not at the same time. Every student will eat by 1.....
Whe you invest in a child's education you invest in the future