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FarkSTURGIS - With more than $22 million in immediate building needs, it’s time to hear from taxpayers in the Meade School District, according to school board president Terry Koontz.
“A lot will depend upon what we hear from people,” Koontz said.
Community meetings will set the tone for what happens with the district’s most recent facility development plan, she said.
The plan calls for spending at least $22.1 million on two building projects and an undetermined amount on a third.
“We’ve done all the studies and made all our projections,” Koontz said. “We’ve determined the basic costs to meet the needs, and now, we’re out to get public input and support.”
The district would fund the construction through a combination of $13.5 million in capital outlay certificates, $2.9 million from its capital outlay reserve fund and $6.5 million in general obligation bonds.
Taxpayers would have to approve the bonds that would be paid back over 20 years with a mill levy of 56 cents per thousand dollars of valuation, according to a Meade School District news release. Based on that levy, a taxpayer with property valued at $100,000 would pay $56 in tax each year.
Superintendent James Heinert said he believes that the building can be completed without a tremendous additional burden on taxpayers.
The Meade School Board has scheduled three public meetings to review Phase 1 of the facility development plan, which calls for three separate building projects to meet the district’s elementary school needs.
Under Phase 2 of the plan a combination middle school and high school would eventually be built at the Stagebarn Elementary School site if growth in the Piedmont and Stagebarn area continues.
Heinert said that a 2004 survey indicated that parents with middle school and high school students open-enrolled in the Rapid City School District would consider keeping their children in the Meade School District if there were a high school and middle school in the Piedmont Valley.
Heinert said that’s a factor but not a driving force behind Phase 2 of the plan.
The first community meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., Monday, March 27, in the Erskine School gym in Sturgis.
At 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 18, the board will host a meeting in the Central Meade County Community Center in Union Center.
A final meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday, April 24, at the Piedmont School gym.
The building proposals are the result of more than three years of planning and a study of the district’s needs, Koontz said.
“We did a master-plan study that assessed all of the buildings in the district and from that master plan evolved where we are today,” she said.
The master plan includes the three building projects that Koontz says are ambitious.
“But they need to be done,” Koontz said.
The district has several aging buildings with classrooms that are not functional as modern classrooms, she said.
The Erskine building, which houses grades 4 and 5 in Sturgis, was built in 1901, with additions added in 1912 and 1925. The Primary building, used for second-grade classes, was built in 1954. Kindergarten is in Francis Case, completed in 1963.
Heinert said the school board is trying to plan 25 to 40 years ahead.
“It’s just not practical or economically or educationally feasible to expect to get that much life out of those buildings,” he said.
In Sturgis, the district’s current elementary system would be moved by expanding Bear Butte Elementary School to house all of the district’s kindergarten through fourth-grade students.
The district would then close Erskine, Francis Case and Primary elementary schools. This proposal includes an option to make room for the district’s fifth-graders at the Bear Butte site.
The plan also includes a central kitchen to provide meals for kindergarten through eighth-grade students at Sturgis and Whitewood.
Koontz said the present kitchen in the Primary building is too small and must be upgraded.
The estimated cost of this building project is $9.8 million.
A second, more expensive project would locate a new K-5 elementary school at Piedmont. The cost of the new school is projected at $12.3 million.
The Piedmont project includes the demolition of the existing Piedmont school and remodeling the current gym and community center near the school.
Stagebarn Elementary would be converted to house local students in grades 6, 7 and 8, Koontz said. Currently, seventh- and eighth-grade students ride the bus into Sturgis.
The final piece of Phase 1 is building a new rural school to replace both the Enning and Union Center schools. The location of that school and its cost has not been determined.
Koontz said the district would like to combine the two schools, which are 10 miles apart, but officials want to hear from the community before making a decision.
The school board is reluctant to prioritize the Phase 1 building proposals because each of the buildings is needed, Koontz said.
“It’s awfully hard to build in one area,” she said. “We would like to accommodate as much as we can.”
Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com
Above, Carroll D. Erskine school, built in 1901, in Sturgis is where fourth- and fifth-grade students attend class. The building would no longer be used under a proposed facilities plan before the Meade school board. (Don Polovich/Journal staff)
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