Calling it perhaps USD 257’s “last, best chance” to improve its educational facilities, Superintendent of Schools Jack Koehn approached Iola City Council members Monday about a potential construction proposal for new elementary and high schools — if voters give their blessing.
The roughly $50 million project — $24 million each for a new high school and elementary school, plus another $1 million for upgrades to Iola Middle School — would rely on a combination of state aid and voter-approved general obligation bonds and a half-cent sales tax split between the city and school district.
The stars are aligned for USD 257 to pursue a massive project this year, Koehn said, noting the state would fund 51 percent of the project, plus the district can take advantage of a court-ordered revamping of how local options budget taxes are assessed.
Thus, what could have been a nearly 22-mill hike to fund everything, can be pared to a shade more than 9 mills.
Koehn spelled out the needs related to the district’s three existing elementary schools, including their shortfalls:
Safety and liability
Traffic around each of the buildings can be a pain with buses and cars having to load and unload in the same proximity. Because each of the buildings is 50 years old or older, water damage in subterranean levels has impacted air quality in each.
“Due to the early 20th century architecture and design, we have few options to fix our air quality,” Koehn said. “It’s a huge issue for us.”
The high school’s campus layout presents ongoing liability concerns, in that students must walk daily across U.S. 54 from the main campus to the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
Additionally, Koehn noted every school in USD 257 remains non-compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) necessities regarding handicap-accessibility when looking at rest rooms, stairs, doors and parking.
And while the elementaries have been designated at one time or another as city storm shelters, none was built to sustain tornadic winds.
“Those schools were well built, but they’re not tornado shelters,” Koehn said, adding similar style buildings in Greensburg and Chapman were leveled in recent tornadoes.
While the district has taken steps to make the buildings more secure to outsiders, none is designed to funnel visitors through the main office before accessing the main campus, he added.
“It’s hard to tell if someone is a threat to your school by looking at little cameras.”
