Nevada R-5 board looking at future needs
The Nevada R-5 Board of Education has been evaluating the future needs of the district and during Wednesday's board meeting they started to look at specific projects to meet those needs. They will continue that process during a work session at 7 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 27.
Dr. David Stephens, R-5 superintendent of schools, told the board that they will need to have some things finalized by the November board meeting and if they want to proceed, in December decide if they want to put a bond issue on the ballot for the April election.
He told the board that the R-5 district has the legal authority to issue up to $24.25 million in bonds.
Wednesday night Elliott Hunter, Hunter-Millard Architectural Firm, told the board that since the number of students in the district was expected to remain stable, rather than expanding the facilities the goal should be to make them better.
And making the facilities better may mean building new facilities or remodeling existing facilities.
Hunter stressed to the board that at this time there are no drawings and any estimates for costs are based on what they know the cost per square foot of construction runs and rough estimates on the size of any facility.
Hunter told the board that they had looked at three possible locations for any new construction.
First is the property to the northeast of the Nevada High School building, referred to as the Burris Tract. This is about 14 acres on the north side of Ashland Street.
He said the property is adjacent to the high school which is a plus.
However, "it will be hard to develop," he said, adding that the property is bisected by sewer easements and has drainage ditches through it.
To completely redevelop the property would require installing culverts and grading. It would cost more than $3.4 million.
"That's a lot of money for 14 acres," Hunter said.
The second possible location is the tennis courts north of the high school.
And the third option would be the field east of the high school where the 140 wells for the high school's ground source HVAC system is located.
"It would cost $375,000 to $450,000 to move those wells," Hunter said.
Hunter told the board that they had been asked to look at six options for development and several of the options could be done in two phases.
* Add a new gymnasium and performing arts center.
Hunter said that this would include an 850 seat auditorium, band room, practice rooms, choral room, full size basketball court that could be converted into two practice courts, bleacher seating for 1,200-1,300, additional seating in stack chairs for 1,200, full showers and lockers and a shared lobby and restrooms.
This would be about 39,000 square feet, with an total estimated cost of $6.1 million.
The combined facility would have some savings over separate facilities since they can share the lobby and restrooms, he told the board.
* Build a 22,500 square foot, stand-alone performing arts center with lobby and restrooms for an estimated cost of $3.9 million.
* Build a 20,000 square foot stand-alone gymnasium for an estimated cost of $3 million.
* Build a new 75,000 square foot elementary school for grades 3,4 and 5 for an estimated cost of $10.8 million. This would include a gymnasium/P.E/auditorium space, 40 classrooms, media center, cafeteria and commons-dinning area.
* Build a new 120,000 square foot high school -- the current high school has 92,000 square feet -- which would include a gymnasium, 40 classrooms, media center, cafeteria, commons/dinning area, community resource areas for adult education, GED, language, community meeting room, or an estimated cost of $19 - 21 million. This would not include a performing arts center.
* Keep the existing high school building and renovate the gymnasium and auditorium. Hunter told the board that this option was only brought up Wednesday. The project would include a new floor and roof for the gymnasium as well as new 1,000 seat bleachers. It would not include the locker rooms and showers. The auditorium would get new seats and if possible install a balcony with an additional 180 seats. The auditorium currently seats 425.
Hunter told the board there is a question of whether the ceiling is high enough for the balcony without raising the roof, would be possible. The estimated cost would be $1.3 million.
"It's something to explore," he said.
Hunter said four of the five new construction options would fit on part of the Burris tract without requiring major site preparation cost.
He told the board that to build a new high school would in reality require that the district purchase 20-40 acres somewhere to have adequate room for the building and needed practice fields at the school.
The board also heard updates on the R-5 Education Foundation, which is a 501c3 corporation, from Shirley Rainey and an overview of this fall semester's data day that was held on Sept. 23.
They also voted unanimously to adopt a resolution designating the third week in October as Disabililty History and Awareness Week.
During an executive session the board voted to hire Daniel Penn as the eighth grade girls interim basketball coach and Beau Gulliford as a middle school math teacher.