The Garden City Telegram
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Plan B? There is no plan B, yet
Published 10/11/2008 in News : Education
By EMILY BEHLMANN
If voters reject USD 457's bond issue proposal, something still will have to be done to address concerns with Garden City's school facilities, board members said.
But what?
That answer is yet to be determined.
There's no real Plan B for dealing with issues like overcrowding at Garden City High School and other school facilities, the need for 26 mobile classrooms around the school district or the fact that at least 15 teachers at GCHS push their materials from room to room on a cart because they don't have classrooms of their own, board members said.
Plan A, the proposal that would be funded by a $97.5 million bond issue on November's ballot, calls for construction of a new, larger GCHS to replace the current one. The $92.5 million building would be constructed to house 2,000 students and would be expandable to fit 2,500.
The current GCHS main building would be converted to a middle school, the adjacent J.D. Adams Hall to an alternative high school, Abe Hubert Middle School to an elementary school and Garfield Elementary School to an early childhood center.
The proposal was chosen over a second recommendation by a community committee to add a second high school to USD 457. The committee recommended the two options for the board after studying 10, including creating a freshmen center, establishing a year-round school calendar and adding on to the current high school.
In picking the one-high-school plan in a 4-3 vote, some board members said that it might have a better chance of garnering community support, since two-high-school bond issues failed in 1998 and 2000.
Even before those votes, high school overcrowding and other facility issues were problematic for the school district, said John Scheopner, a board member of 12 years.
"This was an issue 12 years ago, it's an issue today, it's an issue that isn't going to go away," he said.
It won't go away, and it won't get any cheaper to address, board member Gail Dunford said.
Stewart Nelson, of the local firm Gibson, Mancini, Carmichael & Nelson, estimated that if the current $97.5 million proposal were delayed for a year, it would cost about $6 million more because of escalating construction costs.
"If it doesn't pass, we still have a space issue that will need to be dealt with, and it will cost a lot more next time we go to the voters," Dunford said.
Board member George Hopkins also said that if voters reject this proposal, they'll likely see another in the future. What it would entail, though, would be determined later, he said.
In the mean time, board member Bruce Reichmuth said, the district wouldn't be able to achieve some of the goals the board laid out when formulating its long-range facility plan.
Goals included reducing class size, maintaining the same or fewer school-to-school transitions, providing each teacher with a classroom, eliminating modular classrooms, maintaining and enhancing safety and security, improving teacher recruitment and retention, and providing adequate space for current and future programs.
Hopkins said with a "no" vote, the district would have to go on even with the goals not fully met.
"The primary thing is that we would continue to educate the students of our district the same way we always have," he said. "It's not the facilities we have that provide an excellent education; it's the students themselves, the teachers, the parents."
Eventually, though, something would have to be done, even though the district has gotten along so far, Scheopner said. He said the requirements on schools are increasing, with mandates like the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Schools also need more space for programs to assist English-language learners and students with disabilities, said GCHS Principal James Mireles.
In addition, a city ordinance bars the school district from adding more mobile classrooms on school grounds, so when the current ones wear out, the students will have to move inside the main buildings, Superintendent Rick Atha said.
"You just have to look at the big picture and say, 'Yes, there's a problem, and this may be our biggest chance to fix it,'" Scheopner said.
Get the latest news and share your thoughts on the USD 457 bond issue at the “Up to the minute” Web log. Find a link on the right-hand navigation bar at http://gctbond.wordpress.com
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