School board to hold public workshop

Talk about it

The Dickinson Public School Board will be holding a workshop to allow the public to get information and voice opinions about possible additions to two elementary schools. The workshop will be held Monday at 6 p.m. at the DPS Central Office.

“With the additional students in the system at this time, we have a very large kindergarten class that went up to nearly 260 students,” School Board President Dean Rummel said. “In the next four years, we’re actually going to need eight additional classrooms at a minimum, and that would be not accounting for any increased enrollment.”

The additions would be for Lincoln and Jefferson Elementary Schools.

The school board is looking at several options. The minimum plan would add just seven classrooms and a multipurpose room for each school, which would cost about $2.9 million. The maximum plan would add 12 classrooms and one multipurpose room for each school, which would cost $3.8 million.

The maximum plan would be more than needed, but it may be needed in the future, Rummel said.

“With the economy, with oil prices and with increasing enrollment here, there’s always that possibility, and it would be very expensive to add that on later,” Rummel said.

The school board is planning for the project to be paid for using stimulus money and by using the school board’s capital projects fund, Rummel said. Property taxes would not have to be increased to fund the projects.

He said anyone interested is welcome to attend Monday’s workshop.

“We will share information with them and if any of the public would like to address the board and provide any comment, we would be happy to receive those at that time,” Rummel said. “We’re more than happy to listen.”

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