Buildings draw patrons to meeting in Palisade

    The Wauneta-Palisade Schools Board of Education has tossed around plans to improve its aging attendance centers for over 20 years.
    In the past several months the board has begun to solidify those plans with the goal of its 30-year consolidation lasting another 50 years.
    Monday, the school hosted an informational meeting at the Palisade Attendance Center to give people a chance to walk through the facility, listen to presentations and ask questions of the board.
    School Board President Allison Sandman applauded teachers for never complaining about the facilities as the Palisade Attendance Center nears is 100th year and Wauneta creeps up on 90 years. Neither school building is ADA accessible, which Sandman said is a detriment to students and teachers.
    In August, the board hired Wilkins Architecture Design Planning to do a facility review. In December, the board approved Miller & Associates to perform a survey of the grounds.
    With findings in hand by February, the board met with Jacob Sertich of Wilkins, Mark Lewis with BD Construction and Tobin Buchanan and Carl Dietz of First National Capital Markets to go over the school board’s options. All were on hand for Monday’s meeting.
    While Dietz said the school operates fairly efficiently in comparison to its peers, Sertich said the focus of Wilkins’ project has been on the Wauneta campus after the feasibility study showed the school would be most efficient in one location.
    Wilkins worked on four options for the board to review with the end goal to move all students to Wauneta.
     Sandman emphasized no decisions have been made as far as the future of either attendance center.
    Monday’s presentation by Sertich provided conceptual plans for renovations and additions to the Wauneta Attendance Center.
    Because the Wauneta facilities have a more solid structural footstep, improvements there would be Phase I of the school board’s plans.
    Besides the lack of ADA access, problems with the Wauneta building include no fire sprinklers, an outdated science lab and issues with life safety/egress, rest rooms, security/safety and kitchen.
    Sertich walked attendees through plans that included renovations to address deficiencies and make updates, and also the addition of a new kitchen, cafeteria and new practice gym. With no room to expand to the north or south, the proposed addition would sit on the parking lot north of the Methodist Church, across the street east from current facilities. It would require closing a block of Shawnee Avenue along the east side of the school.
    An additional gym would allow for better practice times for student-athletes, more flexible scheduling and reduce conflicts with performing arts.
    Dietz and Buchanan took over and talked about the school’s financial situation for covering the expense of the project, estimated by BD Construction to be $8 to $8.5 million.
    Renovations to the facility can come out of the school’s general fund/depreciation fund, at an estimate of $3 million.
    Any new additions, expected to cost $1.5 million, would come from the building fund.
    Dietz walked the crowd through slides showing the past 15 years historical balance of the special building fund, depreciation fund and general fund; 11 years of tax levy information and tax request information; the decrease in state aid since the 2007-2008 school year; and the schools’ spending from the general fund.
    Dietz pointed out lean years in 2012 to 2015, but said the board has starting increasing cash funds for several years and has been proactive to prepare for building projects.
    The school has been conservative, not overspending or having sharp increases, Dietz said.
    After the meeting adjourned, Sandman said the board levied more this year for the special building fund in anticipation of the building projects.
    Buchanan stepped forward to cover financing.
    First National Capital Markets anticipates $3 million coming from a lease purchase. The amount would be paid off over a seven-year span from the special building fund.
    Another $1 million could come from QCPUF bonds. Those bonds would have a 10-year span and a maximum levy of 3 cents.
    Neither require a vote of the public, just a majority vote of the board, Buchanan said.
    Ideally, the final design and engineering phase will cover the next five or six months and construction could begin this fall or early winter.
    A 2017 facility audit revealed the gym to be the only salvageable part of the Palisade facility. Sertich agreed, saying it’s not feasible to “fix” the attendance center.
    BD Construction estimates $9 million to replace the Palisade building.
    In additional board comments, Laurie Maris said this has been a long process that’s been talked about for a long time and questioned how many more bandaids the school can afford at the Palisade Attendance Center.
    Board member Hondo Fanning also spoke up to say student safety is a concern of the board.
Comments and questions
    Following the presentation, the board held a 30-minute question and answer session.
     One of the first questions was if a feasibility study could be conducted to determine what the effect would be on the village if the attendance center was closed.
    Dietz stepped up to talk about his time in the Eustis-Farnam School district and the effect closing the Farnam facility had on the town, but the board did not indicate a study was in their plans.
    Several expressed concerns about having pre-kindergarten through high school students all at one facility and on the same bus routes.
     Members of the board said studies show test scores go up when students are in one location. Maris said studies show everything under one roof is better for kids.
    Teachers and members of the public also spoke up about the high quality of the older students at WP and the mentoring experiences they could gain from working with younger students.
    Another question was why build in Wauneta if the board is not ready to move from Palisade, which has more problems?
    Sandman said if the school moves everyone to one location, there will have to be construction and the board is trying to plan ahead.
    When asked why renovate and build at Wauneta when the facility problems are at Palisade, Sandman reiterated that the Wauneta building has the best structural footprint and the school is not set up to address the problems at the Palisade building at this time.
    Whether there would be enough space in one facility was also questioned, but the board said that would be dealt with in the design process.
    With the 30-minute time limit almost to its end, Shane Gerhartz, a WP School Board candidate, was given a chance to ask a question.
    Gerhartz said a building won’t fix the education students in the district are receiving.
    While there are great intentions at WP, Gerhartz said even great teachers struggle under poor administrators.
    When one member of the public asked if Gerhartz had a question and Gerhartz didn’t, Sandman adjourned the meeting. Wauneta meeting Monday
    A similar meeting on WP facilities will be held in Wauneta Monday. The attendance center will be open from 5 p.m. until the informational meeting begins at 6 p.m.
    As with the Palisade meeting, no action will be taken Monday in Wauneta.