District 308 Board to Focus on High School Additions

When it comes to finding ways to ease overcrowding in , one board member said Thursday remedies have to be based on needs rather than wants.

“Right now it’s not about what we like, it’s about what we need,” Allison Swanson said during the first of several workshops the district plans to hold on the issue. “Quite frankly taxes are killing people. I understand what we would like. What I want to know is, what do we need?”

Last month, board members voted 5-1 to terminate all planning and design for the construction of a third high school. Instead, they asked  architects to value engineering the cost of additions to the two existing high schools with a $25 million price tag for each.

Previous cost estimates for additions to both and came in at nearly $80 million at the high end.

Thursday, architects told board members additions at the $25 million price tag for an 85 percent utilization rate would mean less capacity than each school would need, no pool at Oswego High School, and a reduction in some amenities like synthetic turf fields.

Less capacity could also mean students will have to take classes in spaces for which they weren't intended.

“This year, Oswego East High School was forced into having 113 core classes being offered in non-core classrooms,” said Carla Johnson, District 308’s executive director of teaching and learning. “I observed a math class offered in a technology lab. Can you do that? Absolutely you can. It can be done. Can is one thing; should is another.”

Ideas proposed by board members to ease the district’s overcrowding included opening freshman centers, building a new junior high school, making the current junior high schools for students in seventh grade through freshmen, and utilizing Murphy Junior High School and the old Traughber Junior High School.

After more than two hours of discussion, board members decided they would focus solely on the additions.

Board member Mike Scaramuzzi said he voted against the third high school because “the expansions are the next best option.”

“I know that’s going to add to the tax bill but it’s going to add half of what it would have if we added the full high school,” he said.

Board members charged architects to cost-engineer the additions with a $25 million price tag at 88, 90 and 92 percent capacity utilization rates and streamline the projects even more.

Board member Lynn Cullick questioned whether the $25 million price tag for the value engineering was feasible.

“I think we’re going to have to be more reasonable than we’re being,” she said. “If we’re pushing the utilization up it defeats the purpose.”

If the board wants to move ahead with additions, a decision would need to be made by the first board meeting in September.

If bonds are to be sold for the construction, the district will need to begin the process in September. The district still has the authority to sell about $246 million more in bonds for construction, but that runs out Nov. 6. 

The board must also make decisions on dozens of other capital projects proposed for across the district. Administration officials will present the board with a $12 million list of other construction projects needed throughout the district at its Monday meeting. Officials will also provide the board with information concerning the facility needs for the transportation and maintenance centers.