vision2020
Re: New High School
Priscilla:
This is a very unofficial answer to your (and Kathy Warren's) questions. There will, of course, be no new high school, or any other significant facility improvement, in the District without voter approval after thorough research, presentation, feedback, and revision as appropriate. There is simply no way to build anything without community input and approval. There have been no recent presentations by the district regarding facility needs. I think that is because the district is still in the process of researching a proposal to bring to the community--and to be able to fully answer questions such as those you asked and hundreds of others that we will all have. So, acknowledging that complete answers/suggestions/proposals are not yet available, here is the best I can give you right now.
The District commissioned a study of all District buildings that culminated in a School Facility Master Planning document that was presented to the Board in approximately February 2000. There were several public meetings in January 2000 and two town hall meetings at Moscow Junior High on Feb. 3, 2000. As a result of the study and public input, the District's Facility Planning Committee (made up of community members, administrators, parents, teachers, union representatives, and board members) recommended a long-range plan to the board to ensure cost-effective maintenance of healthy and safe facilities appropriate to the community's goals and visions for its public schools. The first phase of the plan would involve construction of a 9-12 grade high school with classroom space for 850 and core facilities that would accommodate expansion to 1000 when needed. The report contains a detailed analysis of school populations and projections and is, of course, available for review. It takes a long time to even create a reasoned strategy to propose to the community--that is what the district and its facilities committee are doing now. There will be other town hall meetings and presentations to explain and obtain feedback on any and all proposals.
To answer the second part of your question--there are a number of possible uses of the current high school once it would be vacated--which would probably not occur immediately after a new high school was built--for a variety of reasons. The building could, of course, be sold to private interests, or there might be other public interests--city, county, federal--that could be served at the current location. One area worthy of consideration is the long- term need for expansion of the courthouse facilities directly across the street from the high school. As voters we all essentially own both facilities and it is possible that it would be in our best interests to retain a public use of the current high school if it is some day vacated. Even in the most optimistic projection, the current high school building would not be available for transfer until several years from now. There would be plenty of time to explore and solicit the most effective subsequent use of the property.
When a proposal is more fully developed I hope that we can agree on the most effective way to utilize Vision 2020 as a means of community communication on plans to maintain our school facilities, whether by full report here or notices of links to other sites containing those reports for those who are interested.
Mike
On 30 Jan 01, at 19:47, Priscilla Salant wrote:
Date forwarded: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 19:46:02 -0800 (PST)
From: "Priscilla Salant" <psalant@moscow.com>
To: <vision2020@moscow.com>
Subject: New High School
Date sent: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 19:47:26 -0800
Organization: Micron Electronics, Inc.
Forwarded by: vision2020@moscow.com
Can anyone on the list help me understand the district's plans for a new high
school? I have not kept up with this issue, so last night's front page article
in the Daily News was a wake up call.
I understand both the parking and sports facilities problems at the current
location. I've also read, but don't have first hand knowledge of, inadequate
labs and classrooms. What I don't know is anything about (1) the district's
projections on numbers of high school students, and (2) plans to use the
existing high school for another purpose once the new school is built.
Thanks,
Priscilla Salant
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