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Preliminary cost of plans $97 million
Published 8/5/2008 in News : Education
By EMILY BEHLMANN
ebehlmann@gctelegram.com
Construction of a new, 2,000-student Garden City High School with room for expansion, plus renovations at several other buildings, likely will cost about $97 million, according to architects' estimates the USD 457 Board of Education has yet to approve.
The board received the possible bond issue costs at a special meeting Monday night, where architects also presented preliminary plans for the proposed high school and for Garfield Elementary School expansions that would make the building into an early childhood center.
Board members are set to vote Monday on the total cost of the bond issue they plan to place on November's ballot to cover their long-range facility plan. The $97,427,724 figure could be altered if the board agrees to a few changes under discussion, including the possible addition at the proposed high school of a pool or expanded auditorium.
The board also will decide next week over what period of time to pay back the bonds. Interest rates fluctuate daily, said John Haas of the firm Ranson Financial Consultants, Wichita, but using today's best estimates, he and Superintendent Rick Atha recommended a 25-year bond issue.
Haas predicted that a $97 million bond issue over 25 years would require an 8.42-mill increase to the school district's current bond and interest of 1.14 mills. The current overall mill levy is 36.54 mills -- $420.21 a year on a $100,000 home -- though the board is voting on a .4-mill decrease Monday as part of its annual budgeting process.
The bond issue increase recommended by Haas would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $96.83 a year, or $8.10 a month, for 25 years.
What it buys
Architect Jim French, of Overland Park's DLR Group, said he and fellow architects have created building floor plans and drawings to give the public an idea of what it would get for that money. His firm and the local Gibson, Mancini, Carmichael & Nelson worked with district staff on the designs.
"This is the answer to, 'What am I buying?'" he said. "Sometimes the biggest issue is that they don't understand what they're buying as a community."
According to a long-range facilities plan approved by the board in the spring, following discussions of overcrowding district-wide, the bond issue is intended to buy the following:
n A new, 2,000-student high school with the infrastructure and space to allow for expansion to a 2,500-student school. The board originally had planned on a 2,250 school at the start, but Atha said given recent enrollment trends -- the school year tends to start with about 1,900 students, then decline through the year -- he "thought we would have been initially building more than what we needed." Administrators have said the current high school has the ideal capacity for about 1,500.
The school likely would be placed inside the U.S. Highway 50/83 Bypass just east of the Pheasant Valley neighborhood, though the district doesn't yet have an option on the land, Atha said.
With their current plans, architects expect the high school would cost about $92.5 million.
n Renovations to the current high school to make it into a middle school for Abe Hubert students. It would involve updating science labs and making some counselors' offices into classrooms, at an estimated total of $250,000, architect Stuart Nelson said.
n Renovations to Abe Hubert Middle School to make it into an elementary school for Garfield students. This would involve adding an elevator and some classroom renovations, Nelson said. The estimated cost on Monday was $750,000.
n Expansion of Garfield Elementary School so it could house the district's early childhood programs, now spread among several elementary schools. This would require adding 11 classrooms and some meeting, office and multi-use spaces, Nelson said. The cost estimate was about $3.65 million.
"This truly is a long-range facility program that we have instigated here," Nelson said. "It addresses all levels. But the high school is a major portion. It's necessary to implement that before the other elements."
Designing the high school
After spending time with administrators, teachers and others affiliated with GCHS, architects came up with a 450,000-square-foot high school "wish list," then reduced it to the 384,344-square-foot plan they presented Monday, French said.
At its center are the cafeteria and library, with four two-story wings for academic classes to the west, closest to the Pheasant Valley neighborhood.
Each wing is designed to include various types of classrooms, including science labs, so GCHS could better implement the "small learning communities" high school teachers advocated at a meeting last week. The concept places students and teachers in "academies" based on areas of interest, and all their academic courses are intended to tie into each other and the interest area.
Commons and locker areas, plus administrative offices, sit on the eastern ends of the "communities."
A wing of vocational facilities juts to the north, and to the east lie the more community-oriented facilities, such as the gym and a 750-seat auditorium with various other facilities for drama and forensics courses, French said. These facilities would face U.S. Highway 50/400/83, which French said would give "a great presence" to passersby.
The plan includes significantly larger science labs, additional classrooms to avoid making teachers travel from room to room, a lecture hall and increased space for vocational programs, French said.
He said it also is designed with security in mind -- something board President Mike Utz said was important to the board. There would be no more than two or three doors open to students, though staff would have card-reader access to others, and the proposed cost includes security cameras, French said.
For athletics, the school would include a "walk-down gym" in which up to 2,500 spectators look down on the gym floor, surrounded at the top by a walking track, he said. There would also be an auxiliary gym, a weight room, a fitness studio and an aerobics and dance studio.
Outdoor athletic facilities would include practice fields, a football field with a track around it, plus eight tennis courts, French said. While the track and courts would be used for competition, GCHS would continue to use Memorial Stadium, at the current high school site, for varsity football games, he said.
There would be space at the new site for other athletics in the future, including baseball diamonds, French said.
Possible additions
Board members generally expressed satisfaction with the designs proposed by architects, with Utz saying that the high school plan was "some of what I envisioned" as a way to break a large school into smaller communities.
However, some board members questioned whether some additional community-oriented facilities, like a pool and larger auditorium, should be accommodated in the high school design.
Board member Gail Dunford said she thinks a pool would be a good way to provide students with opportunities to improve health.
In addition, the community has talked for a long time about needing a fine arts auditorium, and now might be a good time to create it, board member George Hopkins said.
"I'm interested in a facility that we're gonna spend $100 million on really taking care of a lot of needs," he said. "A pool or a fine arts center are not out of line."
If the board opted not to add a larger auditorium to plans for a new school, the district could consider making improvements to Clifford Hope Auditorium at GCHS, he said. French said the auditorium, which seats about 1,300, is in good shape but that acoustics aren't ideal.
Atha said the design presented Monday was created with the high school students' needs in mind, while the board was raising suggestions that would serve a larger population. Changes could require additional parking, and factors like the high operational costs of swimming pools would have to be considered, he said.
"Where does the district stop and the community begin?" he asked. "Where do the city of Garden City and the county come in?"
Nevertheless, the land would be available to add a pool or parking spaces if needed, and architects said they could develop a plan that would make a 750-seat auditorium expandable in the future.
Construction costs also were a concern, with French saying that inflation could raise the cost of the plan by about $6 million if the community were to approve it next year instead of this year.
How could the board, then, be sure the estimated cost would actually cover all that is planned for the facility, board member Jeff Crist asked.
In Hutchinson, for instance, the USD 308 board of education is trying to scale back a high school bond project whose bids came in 23 percent over the $29.6 million estimate, the Hutchinson News reported last week.
Nelson said architects in Garden City consulted contractors to determine costs and tried to account for inflation, "but there are no guarantees out there."
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