The overwhelming commitment by school board members to stick to the designated site for a new elementary school came through loud and clear at Tuesday nights forum on the April 2 school bond election.
Our board is determined were going to find a way to make this work, said Stacey Fager, superintendent of schools.
Fagers pledge honors the decision of steering committee members who have spent the last 18 months guiding the school initiative, including its site.
Thats particularly welcome news after voters in 2010 thought their vote for a new hospital included its proposed site on East Street, not far from the proposed elementary.
Instead, hospital trustees yielded to the desires of architects and after the referendum switched the site to North Kentucky, leaving a bitter taste that for many has yet to dissolve.
Fager said the boards support of the location took many things under consideration, including, Its almost dead center of our district, making it equally accessible to districts students and their families, including those in the communities of Gas and LaHarpe.
The board is also cognizant of the big influence new schools have on an areas economic development. Situated on the site of a former zinc smelting operation from more than a century ago, the new elementary would spur the stop-and-go development in a part of town that has long been neglected.
We know the community wants the site cleaned up. We know the state wants it cleaned up. We know the EPA wants it cleaned up. So its a win, win, win, said Fager. Plus, fingers crossed, the Environmental Protection Agency will foot the bill for its soil remediation.
As part of a Superfund site, the land is on schedule to be remediated at no cost to the city in 2022.
Now, according to officials Tuesday night, the cleanup could be leapfrogged to accommodate construction of a new school, with its doors set to open in 2021.
THE SECOND takeaway Tuesday was that even though the single elementary would be a smaller footprint than the combined footage of the existing three elementaries, its space would be used in a more efficient manner and result in all sorts of savings.
The most obvious would be in utility bills. Second, a cafeteria in the elementary school would eliminate the current situation where hundreds of breakfasts and lunches are prepared and transported from the high school to the grade schools each day.
Other efficiencies would come from needing only one media center and one gym instead of three, and for law enforcement to patrol only one elementary school.
Another big impact would be made in the delivery of special education services provided by ANW Cooperative.
Replicating the services for speech and occupational therapy in three buildings is not only a waste of time, talent and money, but also shortchanges students, said Doug Tressler, ANW director.
If isolated to one building, the savings could be put toward paying better salaries, and thus attracting professionals to the chronically short-staffed program.
