USD 257 school board members agreed Monday on a series of summer maintenance projects, including work to keep the no-longer-new track at Riverside Park in tip-top shape.
They just hope like heck the Iola Middle School roof can last another year, and no other big-ticket expenses crop up in the interim.
Board members approved spending a shade more than $145,000 on summer work, including 10-year maintenance work to the track; replacing fire alarms and adding fully accessible restrooms to Jefferson and McKinley elementary schools; concrete work and other miscellaneous projects.
To afford this, USD 257 will defer until 2016-17 to buy another school bus and replace the IMS roof.
“If we don’t do the track this year, in a couple of years the cost will double,” Superintendent of Schools Jack Koehn said in explaining his rationale. “We need to do the track (maintenance) while it’s still doable.
“If the middle school roof was leaking, I’d have a different story,” he continued.
“How hopeful are you this roof will hold up another year?” board member Dan Willis asked maintenance director Scott Stanley.
“We’ve been nursing it for five years,” Stanley replied. “There are small leaks here and there,” but for the most part, the roof remains water-tight.
The roof replacement has been pegged at $200,000.
The funding for the track work and other summer projects will come from the district’s supplemental general fund, or local options budget.
That means USD 257 will be able to avoid dipping into its capital outlay fund until next summer, thus allowing the district to afford the new roof.
Plus, Koehn is cautiously optimistic the state eventually will adhere to the Supreme Court ruling that its school funding plan is inequitable.
“If the Legislature complies with the Supreme Court, we could get additional capital outlay state aid,” Koehn said.
“If you can fund this, and everybody’s happy, let’s do it,” board member Darrel Catron said.
The project plan was approved, 5-0. Board members Mary Apt and Doug Dunlap were absent.
BUT WHILE the board approved those big-ticket expenditures, Koehn warned of possible budget cuts in the near future.
