By Jaime North
The Danville News
May 12, 2008 10:55 am
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DANVILLE -- Next month was supposed to be the start of something grand in the Danville school district with the ground breaking for a $24 million new consolidated elementary school.
Instead, it will be another month of planning for the ongoing elementary school project. This time, however, it appears the school board will be going in yet another direction, which is expected to cost between $22 million and $37 million.
Board members, Jim Moser and Kellie Krum, presented their study of all six original options for the elementary school project last month to the rest of the board and district administrators. They recommended the board pursue a different option than the decision it made in February to close Danville Elementary School and renovate Mahoning-Cooper and Riverside schools, which was estimated to cost roughly $30 million.
The newest option, which will keep DES open, calls for upgrades of various degrees at all three neighborhood schools. Liberty-Valley Elementary School was renovated in 1997 and hasn't been involved in discussions with the other three schools.
Mahoning-Cooper is the district's oldest school, built in 1920 and last updated in 1964. Riverside was built in 1956 and updated in 1987, while DES is one of the newer schools, built in 1961 and last updated in 1987.
Moser said keeping the three schools open would appease the vast public opposition the board has received the past year since deciding to move forward with the project. Originally, the board planned to close the three schools in favor of building a new state-of-the-art elementary school next to Danville High School, which was expected to begin construction this summer.
Moser and Krum said the goal of their study was to find a feasible option the nine-member board could finally agree on.
The new option calls for bringing each school up to code and building additions to meet new curriculum needs, such as new science rooms, computer labs and expanded special education classrooms. The cost will depend on how much is added and what features are included, according to Richard Snodgrass, the district's business administrator.
The board members, most of whom favored one of the other two options previously considered, agreed that the new option seems to be the best fit. They plan to discuss the project during the next board meeting, 7 p.m. Tuesday at the high school.
An overview of the six options was presented by Moser last month with May 2005 cost estimates. They included:
P Option 1) $11.4 million to upgrade all three elementary schools up to code and get rid of the modular trailers.
P Option 2) $21.3 million to upgrade all the schools up to code, plus additions to the buildings to accommodate some new curriculum needs. Recent cost estimates indicate it would take between $22 million to $37 million to complete the project.
P Option 3) $24.9 million to make additions to Riverside and Mahoning-Cooper, while closing DES. This option would yield $230,000 in savings each year due to operational efficiencies. Recent estimates indicate it would take $29 million to complete the project.
P Option 4) $19 million to upgrade and add to Riverside, while closing the other two schools. DES would turn into an administration building, and the project would yield $720,000 annual savings due to less operational costs.
P Option 5) $19.5 million to construct a new consolidated school next to the high school and turn DES into an administration building. This option would yield $720,000 in annual savings. Recent estimates indicate it would take $24 million to complete the project.
P Option 6) $19.5 million to construct a new kindergarten through second grade school, keep Riverside as a third- through fifth-grade school and turn DES into an administration building.
Cost estimates have significantly increased since then and Snodgrass has previously estimated the district is losing up to $200,000 each month in building costs as it waits to begin a project.
According to Snodgrass, the district is in good financial shape to pursue the new option without raising taxes. However, as the district moves forward with the elementary plan, future renovations to the Danville Middle School and Danville High School need to be considered, he said.
The threshold is around $30 million, Snodgrass said, before the district will need more money to fund a project.
E-mail comments to jnorth@thedanvillenews.com.
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