Aging school facilities have USD 257 officials pondering the idea of starting from scratch.
A laundry list of repairs and upgrades – to the tune of about $4 million – begging for attention are forcing the district’s hand.
“We’re in reactive mode,” said Scott Stanley, USD 257 director of operations.
With a crew of three, Stanley said his maintenance team can’t keep up with all the district needs, from crumbling bricks on the high school’s exterior and plumbing issues at the science building to unlevel classrooms and leaky roofs throughout the district.
And with new maintenance issues popping up seemingly as fast as the buildings are aging, it’s nearly impossible to get ahead of the game, Stanley said.
“We want to get in preventative mode so we can address these issues before they become serious, expensive problems,” he said.
Dwindling USD 257 reserve funds and only $125,000 available for repairs this year have Stanley and the district’s hands tied.
“So, we’re not going to be able to address everything on this year’s list,” Stanley said. “Even if we spent all this money on repairs, we’re still left with outdated facilities.”
Ultimately, it’s up to the public to decide if they want to keep using their tax money to maintain old facilities, some nearing a century of use, or come together and modernize education quarters in Iola.
Iola schools’ to-do list mounting
