October 7, 2009
By MELANIE LAGESCHULTE
REGISTER WRITER
Initial bids for three major construction projects are expected to come before the Ankeny school board in the spring following Monday’s discussion of the best use for state sales tax revenue.
The district will have access to the sales tax revenue starting July 1. Officials estimate they will have $65 million available in the first three years.
Board members voted unanimously Monday to build the district’s ninth elementary in the Prairie Trail area with sales tax money and use some of that revenue, along with other money, for updates to East Elementary School. Those two projects made up the failed Sept. 8 bond referendum.
“We ought to go forward” with plans for the elementary, board member George Tracy said.
Board President Andrew Martin said he’s not opposed to the four-section elementary school as planned, but would be willing to discuss how feasible it would be to open it as a three-section school.
The updates at East are expected to be done over three or four years as money from various sources is available. “Here’s the fact: The project will get done” one way or another, Superintendent Matthew Wendt said.
The third project moving forward is the second new high school, which will be built on State Street north of 18th Street. The facility plan already called for that building to open in August 2013. The plan already noted it would be paid for with sales tax money, so no vote was needed Monday.
However, board members debated the merits of the second new high school plan and other options.
Board member Todd Shafer made a motion to remove its August 2013 opening date from the plan and to set aside sales tax money to put an addition on the first high school in Prairie Trail, which is slated to open in August 2011. Pat Cahill seconded the motion. The vote was four against, three for, with Shafer, Cahill and George Tracy showing support.
District officials have said their sales tax and project cost estimates are conservative, but Shafer said he’s concerned that the revenue projections may not hold up due to the slow economy.
Cahill said the community needs to feel the district is spending money wisely.
Tracy said he is not against two high schools, but feels the high-school decision needs to be made by the community.
Martin said he’s worried that such a move would cause an unbalanced high school system once a second high school was built, since the Prairie Trail school would be much larger. The current plan calls for both of the high schools, without additions, to serve 1,400 to 1,500 students.
The high school debate “has continued to divide and corrode the community,” Martin said, voicing concerns about what officials would do if the second high school needed a bond referendum and it failed.
While the high school system covers grades 10 through 12, officials will need to place sophomores in the Prairie Trail middle school in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years as part of the conversion to a two-high school system. Vice President Leslie Petersen said she was concerned the idea offered by Shafer would upset the district’s long-term grade configuration.
Board member Trent Murphy said he doesn’t plan to change his support of the current high school plan.
Board member Aaron Johnson said he thinks officials can be fiscally responsible within the current plan. Leaders need to look long term, he said. “It can’t just be about today.”
The district already has designs for the new elementary school. Wendt said once plans are drawn up for the second new high school, bids would still need to be approved before the project really moves forward. To start taking those steps, “you have to agree with the concept.”
There was discussion about whether to have the current high school remain in that use, instead of the planned conversion to a site for grades eight and nine.
Tracy has suggested in the past that he’d like to see the high school stay a high school and build another middle school. Cahill said Monday the second high school probably should be new.
Shafer said he’s decided the current high school won’t be able to adequately serve in that capacity long term. “I do feel that when we get to the second high school that it needs to be a new facility,” he said.
The other board members also showed support for a new building.
Ankeny school plans
Here’s where the Ankeny school district’s facility proposals stand after Monday’s school board meeting:
HIGH SCHOOL: A grade 10-12 building for 1,400 to 1,500 students is expected to be built on district land on Northwest State Street, opening in August 2013. The school would mirror the high school already under construction in Prairie Trail, which is to open in August 2011. Construction of the State Street high school is estimated to cost roughly $50 million. It would be paid for with sales tax revenue. The board voted unanimously Monday to use sales tax money for the $1 million the district will pay the city toward improvements to State Street. The district needs to acquire more land for the school.
NEWEST ELEMENTARY: A ninth elementary school, estimated at $14 million, would open in Prairie Trail in August 2011 as planned. Sales tax money is not available until July 2010, but the school could open on time if site work starts earlier.
FURNITURE AND EQUIPMENT: Money for supplies to open the schools could come from various sources, officials have said.
EAST ELEMENTARY: Upgrades to East are estimated at $3.8 million. Work could start in 2010 and take three or four years. Some sales tax money could be used. Officials said they are far enough along on the high school and middle school in Prairie Trail to believe those final costs will allow the last bit of 2007 referendum money to go toward East. Money from the physical plant and equipment levy could also be used.
CURRENT HIGH SCHOOL: The school at 1302 N. Ankeny Blvd. would become a site for grades eight and nine in fall 2011, as planned. Upgrades would start no earlier than 2013 and would be done over several years.
STADIUM: The current site at Ankeny High School would remain the competition venue through at least 2012. The board voted unanimously Monday to remove consideration of using sales tax money for that work in 2010, as a way to free up revenue for classroom needs.
REFERENDUM: Officials had planned to next hold a referendum in September 2011; that was moved to March 2012 in a unanimous vote Monday. Financing for the second phase of the Prairie Trail middle school, and possibly athletic venues, could be put to a public vote then.
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