Doesn't Make Sense!

[Mom70x7]

Personal opinion (obviously) -

The real shortage is space. There isn't enough of it.

We don't have enough classrooms, so some classes meet in other rooms (both libraries, cafeteria, etc.), thus denying full functionality of those rooms. One teacher doesn't have a room at all, just travels around with everything on a cart.

I think, for its age, the building is well-maintained. For several years, maintenance was reactionary. A lot of it is now pro-active, preventative.

One of the disadvantages of the modulars: in inclement weather, for the students to use the main building (p.e., lunch, music, library), they have to get dressed for outside weather, arrive, remove outer clothing, participate, get dressed again, return to classroom, remove outer clothing. For little kids, that takes up time that could better be used with instruction.

[Wilma]

Patriot, the current facility was designed for junior high and senior high classes.  At that time there was enough enrollment to justify a building that size.  There was also enough grade school and kindergarten enrollment to justify having two buildings.  Eventually the enrollment dropped to the place that the two grade schools were combined with all of the children of one grade going to one or the other of the school buildings.  This involved bussing Severy kids to Moline and Moline kids to Severy.  Howard kids were bussed to the facility that housed their grade.  I don't remember for sure, but it seems to me that the lower grades went to Moline and the upper grades to Severy.  The current facility was not designed to house K thru 8, plus 4 years of high school.  Thus there is a shortage of classrooms in the main building, plus the library and resource room having to be in the main building.   I don't know what the thinking was when the high school was built, but I doubt that if there had been room allowed for including the grades, that it would not have passed the vote and the high school and jr. high would still be going to the old three story brick building was that located just north of where the extension office is now.

My memory is probably flawed on this as I don't have anything to do with the schools now except for having a daughter working there and three great grandchildren attending classes.  There are others that know more about how this situation came about.  If the new grade school had been voted for, we wouldn't have this predicament now.  Voting it down didn't reduce our taxes any.  I would be interested in knowing how the cost of doing what we are doing now compares to the what the cost of building a new school would have been.

[readyaimduck]

Would there be justification for spending  an extension/add-on of the existing building?  Enough to encompass the present K-6 with a 10-15% increase?  (Never build for now, build for the future).
  Or weatherize a breezeway from the Modulars to the main building somehow?
ready

[Wilma]

I think, that if it is possible, the best thing would be to visit the school and ask for a tour, especially a peek into one of the modulars while the students are present.

[Patriot]

Or weatherize a breezeway from the Modulars to the main building somehow?
ready

I understand that a bid has been let to do just that.  The cost is around $18,000.  

I wonder, though, if the main building was originally designed to house over 600 students, there must be enough total footage.   I realize that space was probably intended to house only 3 or 4 grades, so there is undoubtedly a problem now with the total number of classrooms.  Is it possible that interior remodeling of the existing footage (by installing walls and doors) could be made to increase the total number of useable rooms, thereby accommodating a larger number of students in differing grades in the space available?  That might be more cost effective than new construction and make better use of existing space.  Just trying to 'think inside the box', as it were.

[Wilma]

Was it ever established that the original building was designed to accommodate 600 students?  I find it hard to believe that there was ever 600 students in 282.

[readyaimduck]

Good thoughts Patriot for your thoughts in the box. Puts it into perspective as a student.
When we went to school, the grades, gym and lunch room were all in one building. 
Now, look at it from a birds-eye-view:  20 kids (active are most of them, with some that have disabilities) in one space and 1 teacher.
However, not to be a pessimistic yet rather the pro/con type:  Wouldn't putting up more walls and doors deduct from the existing space?

ready...... to build a new future.
(edited for correct English)

[Patriot]

However, not to be a pessimistic yet rather the pro/con type:  Wouldn't putting up more walls and doors deduct from the existing space?

Yes,but only to the extent that new walls, in and of themselves, would eliminate some small amount of useable space. 

So let us say those walls eliminated the space needed for 75 students (arbitrary figure, to be sure).  If the total number of classrooms gained were sufficient to properly house the existing elementary student body in the main building (while still maintaining adequate safety/comfort factors consistent with the original design criteria), wouldn't that be an approach that solves the initial/existing problem(s)?

Like I said, I haven't seen the blueprints, but maybe somebody should look.  Ultimately, if the idea would work, it would surely be far less costly than new construction from the ground up (land preparation, foundations, windows, electrical service, heating/cooling, etc.).

[Wilma]

I really think that was taken into consideration at the start of this problem.  Maybe before you do any more conjecturing, you should ascertain if the rooms in the original building are big enough to be divided into usuable space.  Possibly, if the rooms were so divided, we would wind up with more rooms not large enough for the number of students involved.

[Patriot]

I really think that was taken into consideration at the start of this problem.  Maybe before you do any more conjecturing...

And your conjecturing is better than mine?  Give me a break, Wilma.  I've said TWICE that I haven't seen the blueprints.  Notice I also mentioned maintaining adequate safety/comfort factors consistent with the original design criteria.  I simply suggested that perhaps the people elected or hired to solve the problem might consider doing so.  If the concept has already been considered or is too complicated, then maybe they need to hire an outside consultant... oh, wait, they have hired a consultant.  But was that a premature action?  Don't know. 

Seems to me that if one were able to pick up a dozen sufficient classrooms the whole situation might be well on the way to a fix, without the much higher costs of new construction.  It is, after all, the taxpayers money we're talking about here.