Board Hires Architects For Preliminary Work on High School Additions

Supporters of a third high school in are urging the newly seated board members who vowed on the campaign trail to halt the construction to keep an open mind.

Several board members have said they need more information to consider whether the proposed third high school is needed.

“I know a lot of promises were made,” said resident Margie Hill at Monday night's school board meeting. “But now that you’re on the board I hope that just because you made that promise that you really look over all the numbers.”

Nearly 100 residents attended  Monday night’s meeting at which board members unanimously approved the administration’s recommendation to accept contracts for preliminary design work for additions to both chool and  to help ease future overcrowding. The design work will cost the district about $59,000.

The architects, Kluber Architects and Engineering and ATS&R Architectural Co., previously completed design work on the schools. The costs for additions to the schools are expected to be reported to the board June 13.

Also during the meeting, board members considered a proposed contract with RSP & Associates to update the projected enrollment numbers with the 2010 census data and run projections out to 10 years. RSP provided the district with its most recent enrollment study.

However, board members balked at the $25,000 price tag  for updating the figures.

“That’s significantly higher than I thought it would have been,” said board President Bill Walsh.

School officials plan to ask RSP if using old data to run the projections out to 10 years rather than the updated 2010 census information will bring down the contract's cost. Once that information is known, board members may call a special meeting to vote on the contract.

Some residents questioned whether the RSP proposal was even necessary.

“I agree we should have as much information as possible but I do have some concerns from a fiscal responsibility standpoint,” said resident Cheryl Carbone. “I believe RSP did their due diligence with a level of detail I was amazed at.”

She asked if those new board members who campaigned against the third high school would change their minds if the numbers supported the need.

“If we’re going to spend the money to update those numbers, I just want to make sure you have an open mind,” she said.

Resident Jennifer Smith said both high schools will be over maximum capacity by the 2012-13 school year and that a decision needs to be made quickly.

She said the study already done by RSP was "very thorough."

"I can respect the fact you would like more information but at a time when we're trying to make this decision I'm not sure  a new study is going to be money well spent," she said.