Iola schools present two pressing problems.
They are energy hogs, using up funds that could be better applied elsewhere.
And they are less-than-desirable — sometimes ghastly — places of learning.
That was the gist of Monday night’s steering committee meeting where Scott Stanley, director of operations, and Scott Crenshaw, principal of Iola High School, took the group on a tour of high school facilities.
With today’s education taking a decided emphasis on STEM — classes in science, technology, engineering and math — Iola is at a disadvantage, said Crenshaw, a former science educator.
Take the biology lab.
“There’s no water. No gas. To run experiments of any nature, it’s almost impossible,” he said.
Instead, the room has long tables on which sit big rocks.
The chemistry lab is worse.
“It’s borderline unsafe,” Crenshaw said.
The lab consists of malfunctioning gas taps with no master switch to monitor their use; open drains that run down the middle of tables allowing for chemicals of all types to mix together and eyewash stations that are nothing more than crudely adapted faucet ends that point upward.
Standing amid rusted fixtures and stained countertops Crenshaw said, “This is a travesty for the kids who aspire to study the sciences. We’re really lacking in what we can do for our very brightest.”
Morgan Dieker, Iola pharmacist and 2009 IHS graduate, confirmed Crenshaw’s allegations.
Even though she graduated at the top of her class, Dieker found the sciences at the University of Kansas a challenge.
“It was a struggle,” she said. “I thought I was prepared, but seeing my classmates conduct experiments and take notes, I realized I was at a disadvantage. I was in this lab maybe five times during high school. Book-wise, I was fine. And Marv Smith was an amazing instructor. But lab-wise, I was at a deficit.”
USD 257 Superintendent of Schools Stacey Fager acknowledged their challenge.
“Today, the sciences are more application-based,” he said.
Already, the school has hit a roadblock because of the science building’s configuration.
After securing a two-year $20,000 grant last year to provide engineering and robotics classes, instructors lack the necessary space to fulfill the curriculum.
“We need a 12-foot by 12-foot arena for robotics,” Crenshaw said. “We don’t have it.”
In tours of newer schools, such spaces can be created by moving partitions and shifting stations, conjoining classes to provide space for large-scale experiments, said Fager.
“As a small district, we’re something of an anomaly to attract such a grant,” Fager said of the Project Lead the Way funding. “We’re committed to advancing these types of classes. Academically, we will consistently push to get better and better.”
That attitude is music to the ears of many young parents concerned about Iola schools.
“What would get me excited as a parent is not having the minimum, but having what it would take to get classes like robotics and engineering here,” said David Toland, whose children are 11 and 8. “I’d like to see us go beyond what is typical of a small rural school.”
Lindsay Jacobs Caudell, a 2009 IHS grad, and a first-grade special education teacher at Jefferson Elementary, said just as with teaching, envisioning new schools shouldn’t rely on the current curriculum.
“In college, I was told I’m preparing kids for careers that don’t even exist today, but will in the future,” she said.
Both she and Dieker, who are cousins as well as friends, expressed their concerns that the current schools are off-putting to today’s young parents.
Also on Crenshaw’s radar are classes geared toward healthcare such as those offered at the high school in Parsons.
“They’ve got classes to become a CNA, study CPR and first aid. They offer medical internships.They have dummies where you can insert an IV. Why can’t we do that here,” he challenged the crowd.
“Our facilities are a limiting factor to our children’s education.”
Such facts are helping drive the discussion of what teachers, staff and the community envision as possible for Iola schools, said architects Rick Brown and Darren Augustine.
Over the past two weeks, the architects with Wichita-based Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey have met in small groups with more than 120 district teachers to understand their needs.
“We’ve done this before,” Brown said, understating the firm’s longstanding history with designing schools, “and nowhere have we gathered as much positivity from staff as we’re getting here.”
A district-wide needs assessment will be the “building blocks” for conceptualizing what new or renovated schools would like, Brown said.
THE CURRENT situation is grim, said Stanley. To address standing needs requires more than $6 million in additional funding.
To replace the existing heating and cooling systems would require $2.4 million, Stanley said. A full upgrade would cost a daunting $6.7 million.
“We start every morning addressing heating or cooling needs in one classroom or another,” he said.
Of the district’s 102 units, 99 have passed their expected usable lifespans.
Those 30-year-old units are not only expensive to repair — “I spent $3,000 in parts just last week and they’re already gone” — but terribly inefficient.
A study of the energy systems of schools in Garnett, Chanute and Erie showed that Iola’s schools consume twice, sometimes three times, the energy of those town’s newer schools.
The most recent energy study for Iola schools was in 2014, “when we spent $341,700 on utilities,” Stanley said, a real drain on the budget.
Though it’s the newest building in the district, McKinley Elementary, built in 1950, “is by far our least efficient,” Stanley said. McKinley’s energy consumption was three times that of Garnett’s new elementary school, he said.
Roofing and structural deficiencies are the other “big ticket” items that challenge the budget, Stanley said.
“Lincoln Elementary is in serious need of a new roof. Districtwide, we’re looking at $1.3 million for roofing in the next five years,” he said.
In all district buildings groundwater is a problem.
As an example, Stanley relayed a routine asbestos inspection on Dec. 5 — one month out from any rain — to discover 5 inches of water in the basement of Jefferson Elementary.
“I don’t know if there are underground streams, or what, but the sump pump had gone out, and that’s what we found,” he said.
Every year the sump pumps at McKinley have to be replaced because of heavy use, he said.
Day-to-day maintenance averages $106,000 a year.
Over the past 11 years, the district has spent $3 million on significant repairs including roofing, structures and HVAC.
BESIDES the obvious challenge to teaching and learning in substandard conditions, it makes for difficult recruitment, said Superintendent Fager.
“A lot of districts can sell themselves to applicants through their facilities,” Fager said. “For us, it’s the opposite. We show our facilities and at the same time try to distract them.
“And to be honest, I’m not always honest about the state of our facilities,” when prospective candidates come to town.
“It’s a chore.
“We need to open our minds and look at the possibilities.”
