USD 257 school board members gave their stamp of approval for a new elementary school at the intersection of Monroe and Kentucky streets in Iola at their meeting Monday night. The vote was 6-1.
The bond issue will now go before voters in the spring.
The decision included a change to previous plans, with members approving a regulation-size gymnasium that will allow the district to host league competitions. The larger gym includes an 84-foot basketball court with an additional 10 feet on the perimeter. Additional cost for the gym is $1.5 million, pushing the bond issue for a new elementary to $25.5 million.
Also on the bond issue are the options to build a new technology center and other improvements at the high school ($7 million), and improve the heating and cooling system at the middle school ($2.8 million).
Board members see the larger gym as a way to boost economic development by hosting athletic tournaments as well as serve as a backup community gymnasium to the gym in the Recreation Community Building in Riverside Park. That gym has flooded multiple times, including as recently as October, necessitating a new floor.
Board members raised a concern that insurance companies could refuse to cover the gym if it continues to be flooded. The recreation center is the site of numerous community activities such as dodgeball, volleyball, aerobics, and basketball, all of which have been displaced by the recent flooding.
Building a regulation-sized gym at the new elementary school also would require a larger parking lot at the site and additional restrooms. The gym would have about 300 seats (the original, elementary-school sized gym had no seating). The new plan would add between 3,000 to 3,500 square feet to the project.
It would not include a concessions area (the school cafeteria would be sufficient, Darin Augustine, project engineer with SJCF Architects, said). It also would not include locker rooms, but would include basic infrastructure to make it easier to add things like plumbing later.
The new elementary school, with the larger gym, would cost the owner of a $70,000 house about $10.48 in additional taxes. If voters approve all aspects of the project, the cost would be $14.17.
Board member Jennifer Taylor said she?s the one who pushed for the larger gym and believes it?s worth the extra cost.
?If we?re going to do this, we should do it right,? she said.
WITHOUT knowing the costs to remediate the property at Monroe and Kentucky streets caused Nancy Toland to be the lone vote against the resolution. Toland?s stance is a Catch 22. Without approving the go-ahead, district officials cannot have the soil tested.
Cleanup costs could range between $80,000 to $175,000 per acre foot, with estimates not expected to exceed $500,000.
Ryan Sparks, a member of the steering committee, said the worst-case scenario for the clean-up is still just a fraction of the total cost of the project. Committee members viewed the cost of the clean-up worth the benefit that it would bring to that area of the city and potentially spur future development.
It?s also possible state or federal assistance could offset some of the cleanup costs, Augustine said. It should take about 60 days to get results from core samples of the soil, but it wasn?t clear when that process would start.
