McPHERSON, Kan. — After several months of intensive discussion, informational open houses, and more discussion, the McPherson USD 418 Board of Education voted unanimously Monday night to approve a long-range facilities plan and to submit to voters in a March 3rd special election a two-part bond issue for that plan.
The $62.5 million Part One will include construction of a new classroom area at McPherson High School and removal of the existing hex section plus other improvements, safety improvements at Lincoln and Roosevelt Elementary School, and paying off of all existing facility lease agreements including HVAC and athletic field projects.
The $27 million Part Two includes conversion of Eisenhower Elementary School to a 6-8th grade middle school and other projects. The bond question as submitted states that in order for the second part of the proposal to pass, the first part must also pass.
In a related vote the board voted, with Chelsea Busch abstaining, to implement the plan to go from four to three elementary schools in USD 418. Prior to the vote to go from four to three, Busch said looking strictly through a financial lens, it would make more sense to close Lincoln Elementary. However, given the sustainability and longevity factors, she could see why Eisenhower was designated to be repurposed.
Jeff Johnson said closing an elementary school is hard, but it seems to be best in line with what the community has looked toward, and what survey results have indicated.
Member Rebecca Pankratz said she received many emails from families related to elementary change, and told her fellow board members none of those e-mails were “attacking”, which she said speaks well of district families. She stated this process was hard, given schools have identities and meanings, and many families made home purchase decisions around a certain desire or dream.
Prior to those votes, the Board heard a review on the Excellence K12 phone survey presented at the December 1st meeting, and a presentation of from Kristin Magette from the Kansas Association of School Boards regarding an online survey it conducted which 831 people, 59 percent of which were not employed by the district and 41 percent district staff.
Survey results, from which comments were removed if they identified a specific individual, used cruel or harassing language, or went “wildly” off topic, six general themes emerged. Those in no particular order include safety, educational quality and class size, transparency and commitment, facility conditions, financial responsibility and long term planning
Magette noted in her presentation the Thought Exchange results were quite similar to what other surveys and input indicated. She added that this is lingering negative sentiment across many groups. There were three areas that were consistent across all inputs including safety and security, student learning,and financial stability.
Architect Duane Cash, who has been working with the district to develop this plan, said of the district’s facilities, Eisenhower is the only one that could easily be adapted to middle school use, based on how the existing building is set up. He added the facilities plan adopted addresses long term stability through the inclusion in the plan of a preventive maintenance plan, something that community members also indicated was a priority.
Board member Bill Grove added that in developing the facility plan, it responded to community views.
The bond proposal now goes to the Kansas State Board of Education, which at their January meeting will be requested to give approval for the election to proceed.
