USD 489 held their regular board meeting on Monday night. They received a visit from 111th district State Representative Sue Boldra and State Senator Ralph Ostmeyer. They discussed a variety of legislative issues and answered questions from the board.
The Facilities Needs Committee also made a presentation to the board. Superintendent Will Roth told Eagle News. “The Committee has been meeting each Friday morning. They have made no decisions. These are very preliminary discussions. The feeling of the committee is that the Rockwell Building is probably the worst building that we have. It’s big; it’s inefficient and does not meet the needs of what we do there. The Rockwell building also has 12th Street Auditorium, which our high school uses for performances. So that is kind of a dual thing we are considering. There are very preliminary discussions and the public will have an opportunity to weigh in on these ideas.
There is discussion of repurposing the Washington School building and that may provide an opportunity for the Rockwell Center to close down. When we say close down, we are talking about that whole block would close down. It’s the feeling of most people that the site would just be leveled and something new would spring up there hopefully. For us it would be a matter of moving out completely to the Washington building or some other facility. That kind of where the discussion is now. For the performing arts we would have to build a performing arts center out at the high school, which is something we have wanted to do ever since I’ve been in Hays (29 years).”
Minutes from the Facilities Needs Committee Meeting April 12, 2013 are below –
Attendees: Will Roth, Nick Schwien, Brian Weimer, Josh Waddell, Darren Schumacher, Aaron White, Tom Drees, Pat Lowry, Todd Powell, Richard Cain, James Leiker, Tammy Wellbrock, Paul Briseno, Bryce Young
Others:
The meeting opened at 7 AM
- Committee Member Make-up: The Board and Board Attorney have been consulted and it was decided that there is no issue at this time. Until July 1, there is no quorum; The composition of the current committee will remain the same.
- The committee is aware of the need for the public to be able to comment, but at this time would like to have a preliminary proposal to present. At that point, there will be opportunity for public to comment.
o The committee is currently in the evaluation phase of this process o The committee will then draft a preliminary proposal
o Make a formal recommendation to the Board of Education
o The Board will then have to accept or reject the proposal
o If the recommendation is accepted, then opportunities for public comment can be available.
Rockwell, Westside, Munjor Discussion o Rockwell
- If the site was abandoned, the Central Office would not take much space.
- The concern is the space for Maintenance, Early Childhood, Westside, and The Learning Center and the Copy Center.
- If you moved the current Rockwell/Westside structure, including early childhood programs, you would need about 16 classrooms.
The copy center needs to be in proximity to paper storage
and mail sorting.
Central Office, Early Childhood, Munjor, Westside and The
Learning Center could be housed at the Washington site with the
addition of about 4 classrooms. o Munjor
Building belongs to the district, but half the land belongs to the Parish.
Land can be used as long as the building is maintained for educational purpose.
If Washington is repurposed to house programs from Rockwell, then there is a consensus of the committee is that it Munjor can be repurposed as an educational facility at that time
- Additional costs associated with bussing and having monitors if Westside were to be housed there.
- Additional costs associated with transporting food services to that location.
o If additions were made at Washington, it reduces the need for additions at the other elementary schools in the short term.
No Meeting Next Week (Special Education) – the following information can be presented electronically to the committee:
o Present the ‘ideal’ program if money was not an issue
The perception of concentrating the severely disabled students in
one location is not feasible or legal
o How many self-contained rooms are needed?
o What are the needs in each building – how are they used?
o How many square feet are needed in each building?
o Deferring to Mark to confirm that they have adequate space to function
efficiently and effectively
- Committee would like a plan for the district, shared, ahead of timewith the committee
- Committee could then ask questions as needed
The committee has requested a summary list of requests for each building – pulled together in one document for Architects.
Reconvene 4/26/13 – 7 AM
- April 26: HVAC, lighting, security, etc.
- May 3: Follow up discussions
- May 10: HTK representatives