Hays Post
The Hays school board continued to try to sharpen its focus on facility needs at its meeting Monday night.
Board member Paul Adams asked Superintendent John Thissen to invite key players in November’s failed bond attempt to a board meeting in April to discuss their insights on the last bond. This will include DLR, the district architect, and Nabholz Construction, the district’s construction manager at-risk.
Board member Mandy Fox also supported the meeting, adding she would like to hear from members of the community Vision Team about where they believed they had or did not have support during the last bond attempt.
Thissen also said there might be value in doing additional polling of residents.
The board has discussed the possibly of a third bond attempt after failed bond attempts in November and 2016.
See related story: Hays USD 489 school bond fails; another bond likely on the horizon
See related story: Voters soundly reject Hays USD 489 bond issue
Thissen has urged the board to create a committee to work on a new proposal with regular reports back to the board on its progress.
Board member Luke Oborny said he liked the concept of more interaction with the board, which would allow the board to suggest changes before any facilities committee became too far along in the process to make adjustments.
“We talked about it last time. The Vision Team went and did everything, and they came back to us and they presented the idea,” he said. “It is kind of hard for us to make adjustments or tweaks at that point because they have invested eight months of volunteer time and you hate to say, ‘We just hate that. Scrap this whole thing. Take another $20 million off.’ ”
Oborny said the board has already developed a time slot to discuss facilities. He suggested a facilities committee report to the board once a month or ever two months. This would allow the board to make guiding changes during the process, Oborny said.
Most of the discussion in recent months has focused on elementary schools, which are among the oldest schools in the district and those that are requiring the most maintenance.
In an interview on the KAYS Morning Show Tuesday, Thissen noted the district does not wish to put tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars into decaying schools that the district may eventually shutter.
The board has discussed consolidating elementary schools in order to save operational costs.
Board member Greg Schwartz said Monday he would like to see more on operation costs, and what savings could be reaped with different building configurations.
Thissen said he would bring that information back to the board during a meeting in April.
However, he noted the greatest savings would be through consolidating into one large elementary school and parents may oppose that option.
Adams said he hoped DLR and Nabholz might have some more insight on school trends, including what might be the best size for classrooms and what is working well with education spaces.
“They are not going to tell us we are going to take it down to two buildings or three buildings or we are going to build this new super elementary, but they can say here are some of the pros and cons that we have seen about what is going to happen, and we can begin to make those choices,” Adams said. “I would like that sort of information, as well as some of what they may have seen in the election process.”
Thissen said it is not about coming up with a perfect plan.
“What we are saying is we want to have the best plan possible, and that is what we are stumbling on— ‘What is that best plan? What can we do at this point to have the greatest possibility (for success)?'” Thissen said. “When I say success, success is just a matter of improving our facilities. It is not a matter of success of getting just what we want. I think it is a matter of getting what will help this school district and this community for the future and something the community feels it can support and back.”
Thissen said the process is important and open discussion is important.
Board member Sophia Rose Young said she hoped the board would continue to focus on developing a long-range facilities plan.
“My mind says we need a long-range plan of what we see for all the buildings in the district before we go 100 percent on one little bond. I like options,” she said. “For me to move forward, I need a long-range facility plan and the conversation not be so open.”