The Garden City Telegram
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District holds first informational meeting
Published 10/10/2008 in News
By EMILY BEHLMANN
A handful of voters in the Garden City school district had a chance to learn more about USD 457's $97.5 million bond issue proposal, on the Nov. 4 ballot, at a forum Thursday night.
Superintendent Rick Atha discussed the basics of the proposal -- what it would pay for, how the board decided on its plan and how much it would cost tax payers -- in a presentation he and other school district personnel already have been giving at gatherings around the community.
The bond would cover the school board's long-range facilities plan, with the bulk of the funds going toward a new, $92.5 million high school for 2,000 students and room to expand to a 2,500-student school. The main Garden City High School building would be converted to a middle school, J.D. Adams Hall (adjacent to GCHS) to an alternative high school, Abe Hubert Middle School to an elementary school and Garfield Elementary School to an early childhood center.
According to the presentation, the board developed the plan based on goals that included reducing class size, eliminating the district's 26 modular classrooms, providing classrooms for all teachers (15 GCHS teachers push their materials from room to room on a cart), and maintaining or enhancing safety.
The current high school has 56 separate entrances and exits, which Principal James Mireles said is a safety hazard because administrators can't watch all the doors at once. A new school would limit the exits, and just one or two doors would be open for entrance.
A community committee studied 10 options for meeting the goals, including building a second high school in Garden City, establishing a year-round school year and creating a separate building for freshmen. They recommended two options to the board: Replacing GCHS with a bigger building and adding a second high school. Atha said Thursday night that he thinks the board picked the one-high-school proposal partly because bond issues to fund a second high school have failed twice, in 1998 and 2000, and partly because of results from a phone survey of 400 residents, conducted in January by DeSieghardt Strategic Communications, Salina.
It showed that 43 percent of respondents would "favor" or "strongly favor" replacing GCHS, while 33 percent would "oppose" or "strongly oppose" the idea. On the other hand, 37 percent said they would "favor" or "strongly favor" a second high school, while 46 percent said they would "oppose" or "strongly oppose" that plan.
"(The board thought) this had a better chance of passing in the community, and we could implement a long-range plan that will provide for our needs," he said.
Shonda Collins, chairwoman of the Speaker's Bureau Committee in the bond issue campaign, urged voters Thursday night to cast a "yes" ballot on the bond issue, saying she was impressed with the research that went into the proposal. She and other community volunteers are advocating for the bond issue, while school district personnel are only allowed to present factual information.
"It seems like they're saying 'yes' because the facts are very convincing," she said of district staff's presentations.
Public forums: USD 457 and the Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce will be having two additional forums, on Oct. 16 and Oct. 23, to provide information about the school bond referendum on November's ballot. Both are scheduled at 5:30 p.m. in the Courtyard of Garden City High School, 1412 N. Main St. Next week's forum will include information in both Spanish and English.
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