USD 489 facilities committee set to submit ‘big picture’ proposal

The USD 489 Facilities Needs Committees will present its recommendations to the school board Sept. 15. — The USD 489 Facility Needs Committees will present its recommendations to the school board Sept. 15.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

The USD 489 Facility Needs Committee is scheduled to present its formal recommendation report to the Hays school board Monday evening.

The presentation will be made during the committee reports portion of the meeting agenda. The meeting is set for Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m. in the Rockwell Administration Center.

The Facility Needs Committee agreed upon a final draft March 7, but its presentation was pulled off a spring Board of Education agenda.

“We begged off presenting our recommendation because of the school district’s budget cutbacks and the employee layoffs that were pending,” committee co-chairman Patrick Lowry said Thursday.

“It didn’t seem like a good environment to do it this past spring, even though the needs are still realistic and necessary,” Lowry added. “The school district is looking at decades of deferred maintenance, which has put facilities at the end of their operational life, even beyond that in some cases.”

The committee of community volunteers worked for more than a year on a long-range vision for facility improvements, touring each building and working with administrators and staff to understand the educational needs at each school.

The price tag of the projects in the recommendation report was approximately $100 million dollars, proposed to be funded by bond issue or issues.

“We were asked to make a presentation on Sept. 15,” Lowry said. “Although we’ve tweaked the presentation a little since the final draft, not much is changed. It’s still the ‘big picture.’ It’s still a $100 million plan for district-wide building upgrades.”

Click HERE for more on the facilities needs process from USD 489.