The South Heart School District, in collaboration with JLG Architects, will hold the second of a three informal meetings at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 26, at the school gymnasium.
With a recent growth in enrollment, the South Heart School District is looking into potential expansion options in case certain benchmarks are met or exceeded.
Superintendent Calvin Dean, said the meetings were developed to gather as much public input as possible about potential facility expansions.
“It is critical that we hear from the public,” he said. “We want residents to have ownership of this project.”
In preparation for the meeting, JLG Architects have conducted several studies of potential growth, current facility capacity, expenditures and funding sources for potential growth projects. Engineers will present these findings at various stations in the school’s gym on Thursday.
Dean said the meeting will closely resemble the first one, which was held on February 20.
“The biggest change is that architects have clearly laid out three potential routes the school can take as we look forward,” Dean said.
The first option is to update the existing facility to meet current demands and deal with ongoing issues, which are inevitable in an aging building.
Dean said certain sections of the building, such as the cafeteria that was built in 1916, need to be updated if the school were to pursue this path.
The second option would remodel and add onto sections of the current facility.
According to studies, the building is becoming more expensive to maintain.
Increases in costs are largely due to modular additions, which were constructed to accommodate a large student body.
Dean also said the makeshift units will eventually need to be updated and made into permanent additions.
The third option is to build a new facility.
“Plans are very conceptual at this point,” Dean said.
Because it is hard to predict if and how fast the student population will increase due to volatility in the oil industry, the school wants public input before a definitive path is chosen.
To do this, a multi-question survey has been created, which will be available to the public during the meeting.
Around 20 surveys were submitted at the last meeting. Dean said the results are being held until more are completed in an attempt to receive a more accurate picture of the public’s preferences.
“We would really like to see a strong turnout to this meeting,” Dean said.
Abby Kessler is a reporter for The Dickinson Press. Contact her at 701-456-1208.
