HUMBOLDT — USD 258 board members will decide Monday night which architectural firm they will employ to evaluate facility needs.
They and members of a citizens committee heard presentations from three firms Thursday evening: Landmark Architects, Hutchinson, and GLMV Architecture and GMCN Architects, both of Wichita.
Superintendent of Schools Kay Lewis explained the district will complete a 15-year payoff of $8.4 million in general obligation bonds for the community fieldhouse in September 2021 and will make its last lease-purchase payment, covering 10 years and $2.1 million, on the sports complex in 2023.
“Then, we’ll be debt-free,” Lewis beamed. “We want to be proactive not reactive” in dealing with physical and mechanical issues in the schools, as well as keeping teaching venues up to snuff. For that pursuit, board members will pick an architectural firm to give them a full and precise evaluation of district schools.
However, no projects of consequence are anticipated until after current debts are retired, and perhaps several years after that, depending on the extent of concern.
“We’ll be very succinct with plans,” covering three to 20 years, said Landmark’s Kelly McMurphy.
The firm has a background in working with smaller schools.
“Most of our projects are in circumstances similar to Humboldt,” he said. In one project, six rooms on the lower level of an elementary were dual-purposed, serving as storm shelters as well as classrooms, library and commons.
Landmark is no stranger to Humboldt, having been involved in the geothermal climate control project when improvements were made to the high school. Landmark also has worked with Chanute, Girard, Burlington and Uniontown.
GLMV has worked extensively with schools, including recently at Cherryvale, Altoona-Midway, Dodge City and Russell.
Mike Seiwert, project manager, offered a similar rolling master plan for five to 15 years and pointed out, “You have to have a good plan that everyone will buy into.”
Rooms in Humboldt schools might translate well to being repurposed and reconfigured to meet the needs of delivering modern education, he said, which could preclude expansion or additions.
But, noted Mark McCluggage, another of the company’s architects, it would be wise to compare costs of upgrades and expansion with new structures to decide which is the better, and more cost-effective, approach.
Allan Milbradt, of GMCN, followed the same general theme of his predecessors, noting he was the firm’s education planner, along with Clark Simpson, a senior project architect.
He wrapped his firm’s approach to evaluation into several areas of emphasis: site condition, building envelope (walls and roofs), interiors, electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems, and code and safety considerations.
