HUMBOLDT Humboldt school board members discussed immediate and future construction needs for schools at their meeting Monday night.
Board members said they would defer acting on suggestions presented by faculty members until maintenance staff had a chance to weigh in.
I know a lot of this needs addressed but what does maintenance see that needs to be done first? posited Board President Kevin Heisler.
Superintendent Kay Lewis agreed but thought they should set a 10-year plan.
I think there are some things we can do. My question is whether we want to do a lot of renovations over the next 10 years, or do we want to fix the things that are major right now, Lewis said. In 10 years we still have a 1922 building and a 1963 building.
Lewis said they need to save as much money as possible for unknown expenses, rather than plan big projects and put themselves in a financial crunch if something does happen.
We still have the payment for the sports complex that we will have to pay over the next four to five years. That sits at $281,000. I know in the next year we will need to have the track surface re-sprayed and that will cost around $140,000 to $150,000. And in the next eight to nine years we will have to replace turf, Lewis said. We have money saved for those projects. We have to look at replacement dates for our vehicles. If we put a new roof on a building, the lifespan is usually 20 years. But we put a new roof on the middle school last year and we already have seams popping up. We would not have known that if no one had gone up there.
Lewis said the district needs a maintenance checklist that needs to be gone over each year that may not be on the Capital Outlay Plan.
Everyone agreed an immediate need is a new roof for the elementary school.
Water is pouring in there, Josh Wrestler said, noting he saw a lot of trash cans placed throughout the school to catch dripping water while he was at enrollment.
Board members approved the 2019-20 budget as it was presented.
Lewis said they had 20 mills for the general fund along with 8 mills for construction projects.
Lewis said a mill is currently valued at $55,995.
Our assessed valuation went up. It was a lot lower until the pipeline went through. They said after the first or second year it would drop, but thankfully that has not been the case, Lewis said.
In new business, board members approved $108,890 for Personal Service Insurance.
