McPHERSON, Kan. — There is yet another option on the table for facility improvements in McPherson USD 418. A concept presented by architect Duane Cash to the USD 418 Board of Education at a special meeting Tuesday night is one that makes a couple of changes from earlier discussed ideas including one brought up earlier this month and also how a bond issue would be presented.
Cash presented a plan for an overall $89.5 million project. $62 million of this would cover a new classroom addition at McPherson High School where the current hex area would be demolished… but the more recently built “Building B” would remain. This proposal in part reflects preliminary data from a phone survey recently conducted for the district.
The remainder would cover projects at other buildings in USD 418 including conversion of Eisenhower Elementary School to a middle school, which unlike plans presented earlier would be a traditional 6-8th grade school and not include 5th graders. This plan would retain the other three elementary schools in the district as they are now, and the current middle school would close.
Cash also suggested the district adopt a preventive maintenance plan for all district buildings. As the Board discussed this, a number of topics came up, ranging from whether storm shelters at the elementary schools are needed to a suggestion that the high school and middle school projects be done together,
Early data from the phone survey conducted for USD 418 by Excellence K12 indicates the smaller the amount of a bond issue, the more likely those surveyed would support it.
When asked how they would vote if the election were to be held the day of the call, 28 percent would support a bond, with 16 percent opposed, four percent strongly opposed, and others not saying how they would vote or unsure of how they would vote.
Surveyors asked those polls their views on the three plans that had been presented during open houses earlier in the fall. While 48 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to vote for the plan to construct a new high school at a new site and move McPherson Middle School to the current high school campus.
That increases 57 percent for a plan that would construct a new academic wing at the high school and move the middle school – which at the time was projected to be a 5th-8th grade facility – to the current Eisenhower Elementary School, and to 72 percent for the renovation-only option that was presented as option 3.
When asked about the size of bond they would be willing to support, 33 percent supported or strongly supported a $160 million plan with 43 percent opposed. Surveyors then asked those who did not support that bond their thoughts on a $105 million bond, about $15,5 million more than the concept presented to the Board Monday night, 43 percent either supported or strongly supported that idea, 38 percent opposed or strongly opposed.
Among those who said they opposed that plan, 65 percent of those said they would back a $50 million bond, 29 percent were either opposed or strongly opposed.
Surveyors also asked various questions about their views of the district. 75 percent gave the quality of education in USD 418 an A or B grade, just over 23 percent a C or lower grade. When it came to performance of the board, 49 percent of respondents gave them a C grade, 37 percent a grade of A or B, and seven percent a D or F grade with one percent not sure.
58 percent of respondents gave a B or C grade on quality of facilities, 61 percent a like grade for the value received for taxes paid and 55 percent when it comes to student safety. As far as an overall grade for USD 418, 41 percent gave it a grade of B, 31 percent C, 23 percent A, 4 percent D and one percent an F grade, one percent saying they were not sure.
The survey is based on 550 completed calls out of 1200 made. Of those calls, 165 participants live to the east of Main Street and north of Kansas Avenue. 165 respondents live east of Main and south of Kansas, 110 west of Main and south of Kansas, and 110 north of Kansas and west of Main.
