By GARRETT SAGER
Hays Post

The Hays USD 489 Board of Education will hear from three architectural firms during a special board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Rockwell Administration Center, 323 W. 12th.

Early last month, the board and district administration outlined numerous steps that needed to take place in order to address facility needs throughout the district.

The board rested on four courses of action in September that would allow USD 489 to make a plan that would address the district’s aging infrastructure. District officials say much of that infrastructure has served past its normal life expectancy. Proposed plans also aim for creating safer schools and providing space for educational programs that allow students to be college and career ready.

One of those courses of action is a change in an architecture firm.

The board will meet with three separate architectural firms tonight. All three firms have worked with school districts in western Kansas and are experienced in successfully completing bond-funded school building construction projects.

Hollis and Miller Architects, Overland Park, is the first firm that will present in front of the board. They will be followed by Wichita-based Schaefer, Johnson, Cox, Frey Architecture and DRL Group, which is based in Colorado Springs and Overland Park.

Each firm will give a 35-minute presentation.