USD 489 facility committee pitches $100 million recommendation

USD 489 Facilities Needs Committee co-chairman Bryce Young and Pat Lowry with HTK Architects vice-president Chuck Smith. — USD 489 Facility Needs Committee co-chairmen Bryce Young and Patrick Lowry, with HTK Architects Vice President Chuck Smith, Topeka.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

“The school district cannot fall behind. The reason that HaysMed, Fort Hays State University and other businesses are able to recruit new employees to Hays is, frankly, because of the school district.”

That was the caution issued Monday night by Bryce Young, chief operating officer of Hays Medical Center and co-chairman of the USD 489 Hays Facility Needs Committee. Young and co-chairman Patrick Lowry, Hays Daily News editor and publisher, presented the committee’s recommendations to the Hays school board at Monday’s meeting.

The 10-member group of community volunteers and two school board members began their work in November 2012 and had a final draft on March 7 of this year. The presentation to the board was delayed until this week.

The committee, in conjunction with HTK Architects of Topeka, worked on a long-range vision for facility improvements, touring each building in the district and working with administrators and staff to understand the educational needs at each school.

The price tag of the projects is a little more than $100 million dollars, proposed to be funded by a bond issue.

“We didn’t fully understand the constraints and space requirements needed for special-education classes,” Lowry said, noting nearly every building needs updated security and safety features.

Necessary building and equipment maintenance has been deferred for years, he added.

“I think if you could get everyone in the community to go through the same two-year process that we did, everybody would walk away saying it truly needs to be done,” Lowry said. “None of us walked in thinking that there was that much to be fixed or to be planned for. We walked away discovering it was a $100 million recommendation.”:

The committee asked for each school’s top five needs and top five wants. The recommendations include closing the Rockwell Administration Center and the Munjor school. All early childhood classes would be located in Wilson Elementary School. Washington Elementary would house Westside Alternative school and the Learning Center.

Following the 30-minute presentation, USD 489 Superintendent Dean Katt said the committee’s recommendations will be reviewed at every school board work session, starting next week.

“There may be some sessions devoted entirely to discussion of facilities needs,” Katt said. “We have a lot to talk about.”

In April, Kansas will conduct school board elections statewide. Lowry suggested that if the Hays school board wants to “push fast on a bond issue, voter turnout would likely be better then than any other time.”

The last major construction bond issue was in 1979 for Hays High School. The last USD 489 bond issue was in 1995 for maintenance items, according to Katt.

Click HERE for the committee’s recommendations report.