School building project enters first stage
School building project enters first stage
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
A committee of patrons and board members are at the stage where they’re just putting on their work boots to move the district towards a multi-million dollar school building project.
Three community members, four staff members and three board members met Friday morning with an architect who has been hired by the district to develop the plans for a bond issue that could come to the voters by the fall of 2011.
Steve Seidler, board member, said he had several patrons ask him why the district wouldn’t first consider new construction to replace the existing two buildings.
“People have said ‘Why are you going to patch things together?’” Seidler expressed caution about the building of a new school. “It’s probably not feasible. I don’t know if the district is ready for that.”
Wayne Whitty, architect, gave two reasons to remodel and add on, rather than build new: cost and condition of the current buildings.
He said a new building on 10-12 acres with 120,000 square feet – what he estimated the district would need – would cost about $20 million.
He said, “You could take half of that money and make it look just as good.”
