10-year building plan includes new alternative high school, preschool

When Grand Island school officials campaigned for the successful 2005 bond issue, they promised a 10-year building plan.

The bond issue built the new Westridge Middle School and additions at Barr and Walnut middle schools.

In return for a favorable vote on those three buildings, district officials promised to come up with a 10-year plan to address other school needs using the district's building fund.

To keep flexibility in the plan, district officials talked about improvements to unidentified schools A, B and C.

Shoemaker Elementary quickly became School A, with a bid opening on expanding and renovating that school scheduled for September.

Schools B and C became identified publicly for the first time Thursday night during a special board meeting prior to its regular monthly meeting.

School B is a centralized early childhood or preschool building. School C is a new alternative high school.

The preschool building is needed because of a new state aid law requiring classes of fewer than 20 students in kindergarten through grade three, Business Manager Virgil Harden said. Removing preschool classes from elementary schools will free up more space for K-3 classrooms.

Dan Petsch, director of building and grounds, said the preschool building is rapidly approaching the need for board action because of the long lead time to design, bid and construct the building.

He noted that the district already has rented space from Third City Christian Church and needs to have a new building ready when that two-year contract expires.

Harden said the alternative high school is needed because of the deteriorating condition of the modular classrooms.

"We realize we also need to do more with the alternative education program," he said.

The "more" likely would include a vocational-technical aspect to a a new alternative high school building.

Another priority is a centralized food preparation kitchen to replace the separate food preparation kitchens the district now uses. That is a need because district officials did not include a new food preparation kitchen in the new Westridge Middle School.

Another pressing need -- although not a priority -- is  installing a field turf surface made from recycled tires on the football field at Memorial Stadium.

The pressure comes from the fact that the school district has received a $100,000 grant for the field turf. If it does not use the grant by June 2009, it will lose a grant. However, the grant does not cover the full project cost.

As a result, the district needs a $400,000 donation from a corporation, individual, athletic booster club or perhaps some combination of all three to get the money. Even then, the school district must supply some of its own money for the project.

Senior High officials have also talked about contributing $400,000 to build restrooms to serve crowds at Memorial Stadium.

If private donations can be raised to build a fieldhouse, those restrooms will go into the fieldhouse.

But even if the fieldhouse is never built, the need for the new restrooms remains, board members were told.

The problem with all of these building needs is that a change in Nebraska's state aid law means the district can only raise about $1.2 million per year instead of the $2.4 million per year it had been raising.

That makes financing a problem.

Harden said the centralized kitchen can be financed over 20 years by proceeds from the district's school hot lunch program.

Financing for the preschool building and new alternative high school building is trickier.

Harden said the district could issue tax anticipation notes and retire the debt by dedicating a certain percentage of building funds each year to the preschool building and alternative high school building.

But board member Jennifer Worthington worried about tying future school board members' hands by making long, multi-year commitments on how building fund money should be used.

Harden said that is an issue the current board needs to carefully consider.

Board member Heidi Vahle also questioned why some projects have a higher priority than a new building to combine Stolley Park and Starr elementary schools.

That combo building was part of a bond issue that went down to defeat prior to the 2005 bond issue that was eventually approved by voters.

Superintendent Steve Joel, though, said that building's $15 million price tag means it can only be built with another successful bond issue. He said today is not the right time for the district to be proposing a bond issue.

However, he noted the district's reduced ability to raise money through the building fund means it will be hard for school officials to keep their promise of not having another bond issue until 2015. Building needs will create pressure to have another bond issue a year or two earlier.