District Needs Assessment Survey and Wrestling Room/Ag Industrial Tech

District Needs Assessment Survey

If you haven't completed our needs assessment survey, please do so.  This provides the district important feedback as we work to improve what we do.  We are working with the Iowa Association of School Boards in getting this completed.  It helps us as we work to improve student acheivement in the district.  You can access the survey from this link:  

Wrestling Room/Ag Industrial Tech

The district has what is potentially a good problem, but it forces a difficult decision.  Currently, the district has $1,068,386 (about 5.5% of the total cost) in unassigned funds for the current building project.  The primary purpose of these funds is to act as contingency funds to handle any change orders that will come up.  We all know there will be change orders, but because of the construction method and how quickly it will be completed, the consultant is telling us we could have up to $500,000 in funds left over by the end of the project.  Adding a wrestling room or increasing the size of the Ag Industrial Tech addition had been previously discussed.  I asked the architect for some sample ideas that would fit into that budget and how the cost would change if we did it now versus waiting until the project was done.  It would add slightly to the cost to wait.

Coming into the last meeting, my recommendation to the board was to wait until the entire project is done to truly see how much extra money will be left over after the project is complete, and then we could decide what to do with it.  We would know the exact amount that we could afford to do.  That would make everything easier; however, about an hour before the meeting, I received a call from the architect that making the decision now on the Ag/Industrial Tech addition could reduce the cost of that addition from the estimated $500,000 down to around $300,000.  We didn't have a lot of time to process it, so the board did the prudent thing and decided to hold a special meeting where additional information could be shared and it would give them more time to think about it.  In addition, this special meeting gives our stakeholders an opportunity to weigh in as well.  That meeting will be Tuesday, March 27th at 6 pm in the high school cafeteria.

Wrestling Room
A little background information; currently, the wrestling room is at the CWC and is 41' X 95' or 3,895 square feet.  It makes sense to have the room back at the high school as it provides better access to locker rooms, supplies, and it's more accessible during the day for other potential uses by PE classes and others outside of wrestling season.  Another primary concern is hygiene as the wrestlers get very sweaty during practice and then have to walk over to the high school in the freezing weather to shower and clean up.  One option that has been previously discussed is to take the current woodshop and adjacent classroom and turn that into the wrestling room.  With the new Ag/Industrial tech addition, the woodshop is a place that could be freed up.  This space would be 36' X 98' or 3,528 square feet.  It is slightly smaller than the existing room but would get them into our building.  As our wrestling program continues to improve and grow, space to practice could be a definite concern.  On a related note, when the site work was being done for the new addition, the board had the contractor complete site work in anticipation of a future wrestling room attached to the southwest corner of the new building.

The architect sent me four options for a wrestling room starting with a smaller one at 48 X 80 or 3,840 square feet.  This is pretty close to the same size as the current room but could be built at a cost to match the available funds.  He then sent me three larger options with the largest being 5,860 square feet and having an estimated cost in the area of $750,000 for the largest and the others falling somewhere in between.  None of these costs include mats, special flooring or other needed accessories for the room.  Because it wouldn't cost much more to wait until the project was done, I would recommend to the board that nothing be done with this until the building project is done and we know exactly what we have left for money.

You can view the initial wrestling room sketches here.

Ag/Industrial Technology Center
We are building an Ag/Industrial Tech Center as part of the project, but we settled on a compromise for size.  More space is always needed, but when estimating costs of the project, this was the size we thought we could afford.  As we continue to partner with local businesses and industries, we hope to be able to bring their experts in to work with our students in our center to provide our students with a head start in skills to fill local needs.  We have an incredibly strong Vocational Agriculture Program and are working to build our Industrial Technology program into a first class program as well.  We are looking at this type of model.

When I found out we could have extra funds, I asked the architect for some options that fit within the budget.  He sent me some examples that are all about the same size, but have different locations on the south side of the new Ag/IT Building.  Though the cost we're talking about is for a shell of a building with basic lights and electrical.  It doesn't include equipment or other amenities.  Again, because it wouldn't cost much more to wait until the project was done, I would recommend we wait until the project was complete and then make a decision as we would know exactly what amount we had available.  However, the architect pointed out that if we decided now, we could simply move the south wall of the new building 36 feet south and purchase the additional materials in between for a large reduction in costs.  If we wait until the project is complete, we would have the original south wall of the building and a second south wall 36 feet south of the original for the addition.  by not having to purchase the additional wall, we could see significant savings.  That's what brings this issue to the forefront at this time.

You can view the initial sketches of the Ag/IT addition here.

Here's the revised sketch if it's done as part of the project.

Final Thoughts
The decision the board is looking at Monday night is as follows:  1. Do we wait until the end of the project before doing anything so we know exactly how much we will have in funds. Or  2. Do we get bids to see what it would cost to add the wrestling room on now and look at that later (there may be some costs in calculating this request).  or 3. Do we get bids to see what it would cost to add the Ag/Industrial Technology Center now and decide later what to do with the extra funds that may be left.  Honestly, I don't see 2 as a choice at this time.  If we want to look at a wresting room down the road, then I will suggest the board go with option 1 so we know exactly what we have available.  It could be more then we think.  this would also give the wrestling community time to do some fund-raising if they wanted to go with more expensive options.  If we decide to go with the Ag/Industrial Tech Center then I would recommend we go with bids at this time.  The savings is significant in doing it ahead of time.  However, the bids could come in high and the board still could decide not to do it. 
There is also some talk about using the extra money for building security.  We are currently working on our current buildings using our SAVE/PPEL funds and have plans built into the new building to address this as well.  These funds and the building funds can only be used for infrastructure.  We are putting in a secure entrance that will require everyone to be allowed into the office before entering the building.  We have upgraded the video system at the high school and are also doing this at the elementary/middle school.  If you have any thoughts on any of this, please let us know or be sure to attend the board meeting Tuesday, March 27th at 6 pm in the high school cafeteria.