HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hit with a blizzard of objections, the Nickerson USD 309 School Board tabled any discussion on what to do with some of its athletic facilities during Monday’s meeting.
The board wanted to discuss the issues surrounding the track and football field. That led to several estimates being submitted, including a new softball field and other improvements. One of the estimates totaled more than $1.5 million.
Superintendent Jeanie Stroh stressed to the crowd that these were not bids, just estimates, and that the board was not planning to take any action during the meeting. Still, the agenda item brought a full house to the school district offices strongly objecting to any capital outlay being used for athletic facilities, especially in light of the recently failed bond issue.
“The bond stressed critical high needs, limited space and safety concerns,” Amber Rohling said. “To have this bond fail and then turn around two weeks later and read an article that $1.5 million for athletics was being proposed for a counsel vote really shocked me.” The article that was referred to came from Hutch Post: (https://www.hutchpost.com/usd-309-to-discuss-athletic-complex-monday). The article did not say action would be taken during the meeting — a point emphasized by Board President Dan Schweizer.
“I set the agenda along with Jeanie (Stroh), the superintendent,” Schweizer said. “The last meeting (before the election) it came up that we needed to address the track. And it was told to us that the football field needed some attention, and before you do something to the track, you need to do something to the football field.”
Schweizer said the condition of the track has been discussed for two years and that the district has canceled its invitational track meet for next year because of the condition of the facilities. Schweizer says, had the bond passed, this probably would not have been an issue and admitted, while the condition of the track has long been discussed, bringing it up right after the bond issue was bad timing.
In the end, the matter was tabled until after the new year. While discussion of the track was tabled, discussion then turned to two other needs in the district. One was the science area at the high school. The board was in consensus to have Superintendent Stroh look for cost estimates for the science rooms renovation that was part of the failed bond issue. The board wants to see if capital outlay can be used to renovate the rooms so that work can start much sooner than if they tried to make it part of another bond issue. The hope is to get the rooms done for next school year. Stroh said she should have some numbers no later than the January meeting.
The other issue was better security at the high school and better door locks for all of the district’s schools. The board was also in consensus to have Stroh look for cost estimates for that proposal.