The football stadium in Riverside Park won out over improving sidewalks that lead to area schools at Monday night’s USD 257 school board meeting.
Members agreed Monday night to contribute toward improving sidewalks as part of the Safe Routes to School program, but not at the level the city of Iola requested.
Board members were peeved at the short notice they were given to sign on for potential grant money. With a deadline of Nov. 20, the grant required a decision by Monday night’s meeting.
They also thought the cost of the project, $180,300 was in excess.
“I think (projected cost) is severely inflated. Twenty dollars per linear foot is pretty high,” said Scott Stanley, director of operations.
If the grant application is successful, it would foot 80 percent of estimated cost. The city proposed the remaining 20 percent, $36,000, be split between Iola and the district.
“We don’t have that deep a pocket,” said board member Buck Quincy.
Board members settled on contributing $5,000, which, if the city agrees, would leave it paying $31,000, provided the grant application is successful.
A stumbling block for several board members was that some of the proposed improvements did not affect sidewalks that directly connect to schools and several sidewalks that the district had deemed hazardous, including one on the east side of the middle school, were not included.
Also, Member Mary Apt wondered “what are we taking money away from?” Are there are other more pressing needs for the district’s limited capital outlay fund?
A few minutes later Apt got her answer, when Stanley laid out two options for improving the football field in Riverside Park, which struggles to maintain a healthy stand of grass.
He said either sod could be rolled out on the field next spring, at a cost of about $40,000, plus $2,000 for fertilizer in succeeding years, or essentially the field could be reworked and seeded to a cool-season grass, such as fescue. Cost of option B is nearly $10,000 the first year and perhaps that much in the next two to three years in order to get a lasting stand.
Option B was selected on a 6-1 vote, with Darrell Catron giving a thumbs down.
The field will be ripped up — in a careful manner to preserve its irrigation system — to a depth of about a foot. The new seed will be integrated with the existing clay, thought to be the culprit in the field’s poor growth, and then top-dressed with sand. The sand will filter through the soil and give it a more mellow, and healthy, consistency.
Stanley cautioned the field isn’t likely to “look like Arrowhead” after a year. Up to three years of similar treatment may be needed to get a lush and lasting stand of grass, he said.
As for water getting into the home dressing room after a heavy rain, Stanley said an answer probably would be to reconfigure the ground-level profile and re-hang the door with the bottom edge higher than it is today. But, that’s a decision for later, he said.
IN OTHER NEWS, board members:
— Approved changing from block scheduling to a seven-period day at the high school, as was proposed by Principal Stacy Fager at the board’s Oct. 26 meeting. Over the next four years credits required for graduation will be reduced from 28, with block scheduling, to 24. The number of core subjects will not change, but with each year of the progression the number of electives a student may take will be reduced.
“We may find we won’t need as much staff with seven periods,” said Superintendent of Schools Jack Koehn, but “the main reason is to give students more time in each class,” and keep learning more sequential. With block scheduling, students attend one set of classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, another set on Tuesday and Thursday.
Particulars of how the new schedule will work and timing will be worked out well in advance of the fall 2016 semester, when it will start. The decision was pressing because enrollment for next school year will occur in January.
— Spent an hour and 10 minutes in executive sessions, 50 minutes in their role as trustees of the Bowlus Fine Arts and Cultural Center, with their attorneys, Robert Johnson and Dan Schowengerdt, and another 20 minutes for personal matters. No decisions occurred after the closed sessions.
