By Kim McDarison
The School District of Fort Atkinson Board of Eduction Thursday expressed its excitement and support of a phased facilities improvement plan which includes building a new middle school on district-owned property adjacent to the high school.
While the item garnered no official vote, the board gave district administration the go-ahead to continue with conceptual plans that are moving through development stages.
During Thursday’s monthly board of eduction meeting, District Superintendent of Schools Rob Abbott said an ad hoc Facilities Advisory Committee (FAC) met eight times over the course of 18 months — with a 14-month-long interruption in its meeting schedule due to COVID-19 — and reviewed several options for improving the district’s buildings.
According to Abbott, the 28-member committee was comprised of individuals representing a vast range of district stakeholders, including residents of varying ages, parents and teachers; with residents representing a variety of professions, including those from the construction, financial and healthcare industries, among others, and a resource team, including school administration, and consultants from within the fields of architecture, construction management and energy.
Recapping information earlier shared with the FAC, within his presentation, School District of Fort Atkinson Board of Eduction Member and a co-chairman of the FAC Kory Knickrehm described activities during individual FAC meetings and enumerated 10 improvement options, all of which offered a combination of remodeling and building plans to upgrade the district’s structures. The options were offered to the FAC by consultants Plunkett Raysich Architects (PRA) and CG Schmidt, a construction management and general contracting services firm. Both firms are headquartered in Milwaukee.
During Thursday’s meeting, Abbott noted that consulting firm Upper 90 Energy, Madison, was also involved in guiding the FAC’s process.
As part its work, the FAC ultimately selected three of the options, Nos. 3, 7 and 8, to present to the district’s board of education. The ad hoc committee completed its work in May.
During Thursday’s meeting, a single option — Option 7 — was identified as an option of choice, because, Abbott said, it most readily made available the possibility of being developed using a phased building approach.
As the FAC’s work was coming to a close, Abbott said, the district became aware of additional information, including an awareness of “unstable enrollment,” which he attributed to birthrates, trends produced by COVID-19, declining open enrollment numbers within the district and increased competition within the area for students.
Abbott pointed to an area competitor, which, he said, is building a new facility after breaking ground this summer. (A story about a development underway at the Crown of Life academy is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/crown-of-life-academy-begins-first-phase-of-construction/.)
The approval of a new strategic plan is anticipated to help address some issues with enrollment, he said. (A story about the district’s new strategic plan is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/school-district-approves-new-strategic-plan/.)
“Also,” he said, “there has been a fair amount of development within the city.” Looking at the potential for housing starts, he said the district was aware of two separate subdivisions that are being annexed into the west side of the city just beyond the high school on Banker Road.
“The city has been working very quickly to get the subdivisions in a place where we can have housing starts sooner than later, but that’s something that’s very exciting to us given that housing has been a significant limiting factor for people coming to Fort Atkinson or choosing to stay in Fort Atkinson as well,” Abbott said. (A story, outlining the city’s intention to bring conceptual plans for the Banker Road territory before its Plan Commission tomorrow, Aug. 24, is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/plan-commission-to-consider-banker-road-neighborhood-conceptual-plan/.)
Additionally, he said, some of the city’s tax incremental financing districts are due to expire within the next few years, which, he said, “would have a significant impact positively on the property owners’ tax rate, which would really, potentially, be a benefit for us in looking at a future project.”
He cited leadership changes within the community, in both the public and private sectors, which, he said, brings a “spirit of ‘what’s next?’ in our business community, our city, as well as, I think, within our school district.”
Looking more closely at Option 7, graphic representations show, would the district consider building the option in a single step, it would come with a price tag of between $115 million and $119 million. Using a phased approach, Abbott said, the funds could be identified and spent in smaller pieces, making the option more affordable for the district’s taxpayers.
Option 7: What’s included?
According to information shared with the FAC, Option 7 focuses on building a new grades 6-8 middle school on a site that was, at the conclusion of the FAC committee meetings, yet to be determined, but identified Thursday as land adjacent to the high school, and included renovations to be made at all four elementary schools.
During Thursday’s meeting, Abbott said, the district would plan to raze the existing middle school, and return the site to green space. The site would be maintained by the district until a new use for it was identified.
Additionally, the option includes modernization of all of the district’s existing elementary schools. Graphic representations shared earlier with the FAC and again on Thursday, show elementary school improvements coming in the form of additions built onto each elementary school building.
A breakdown of costs for each improvement is as follows: modernization for the elementary schools is estimated to cost $14.5 million at Barrie, $17 million at Luther, $18 million at Purdy, and $11.5 million at Rockwell. Approximately $52 million would be required to build the new middle school, and $5 million is earmarked for maintenance costs at the high school.
Describing Thursday the details of the phased approach, Abbott said the district would plan to tackle the first major improvement, the building of the new middle school, within Phase 2. Improvements to the elementary schools would come in later phases that would be determined at a later date.
Phase 1 of the facilities improvement plan was already underway, Abbott said, noting that $5 million in improvements were already taking place at the high school. Monies used were coming from maintenance improvement funds already existing within the district’s budget. No new monies would be required to complete Phase 1, he said.
A story, identifying the three options as recommended to the board by the FAC, as well as the larger field on 10 options, is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/three-100-million-plus-school-building-improvement-options-to-be-presented/.
The school board meeting can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi8RLs1Pb_Q.
PRA graphic representation of “Option 7” changes proposed for the School District of Fort Atkinson school buildings as presented to the Facilities Advisory Committee. The district is looking at developing this option using a phased approach. Phase 1, addressing concerns at the high school, is already underway. Phase 2 would address the first part of Option 7 construction, starting with the middle school, which carries a price tag of $52 million. Plans call for building the new middle school on district-owned property near the Fort Atkinson High School.
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