The Jonathan Alder Community Advisory Team came to together for their third meeting on November 7 to continue to plan for the expected growth of Jonathan Alder Schools.
One of the expected areas of growth is student population, and the committee is looking at potential plans for physical facilities expansion in the district.
The state funds schools that need to be redone, or updated, and for JA schools, that school would be the junior high school.
“The only school left on our…capacity… would be the junior high,” says JAHS assistant principal Darren Clark. “It’s the only school that we haven’t used state dollars to update and to fund.”
One of the challenges is planning for what the district will look like in ten years, not just right now. With putting new buildings or classrooms that will help now, how will it help when it all dies down and there are expensive classrooms being unused.
“The thing that is surprising is with current predictions we are gonna experience some growth. But then it’s supposed to kind of stall out,” says teacher Wendy Hall. “And so that’s another reason why we’re looking at all the options for all the schools, because where would the new school best fit 10 years from now?”
The district is working with the architecture firm Steed, Hammond and Paul to best plan for this growth. They have different ideas to accommodate the expected growth. Some of the proposals include building a new junior high school, getting rid of the junior high, or adding a new elementary school all together. The ideas they have accommodate different aspects of what they need to fulfill the growth of JA as a school and the students in the school.
Many students aren’t aware of the possible changes. When told about the planning, though, Freshman Ella Dyer, was hopeful about the possibilities for “more opportunities in the future for students to be able to become involved in things and more academic programs maybe being built.”
One of the potential plans includes a high school building that is sixth through 12th grade. Dyer feels like this would be difficult.
“I feel like I think it might be hard for high schoolers…if they’re stuck with sixth graders. I think that might be hard, just because…maturity wise…if you’re stuck in a building with a bunch of sixth graders…I think you might go crazy in a way,” she says.
When it comes to funding the new building, 54% of the money comes from the state and then 46% comes from local sources.
“The primary educational building will be able to be funded on that ratio,” says Hall. “But anything additional beyond that, things that don’t meet a majority of student need has to be treated differently.” says Hall.
As part of the decision process, the committee will consider funding sources–both state funding and more local sources.
“You have a pretty wide range of people,” says Clark. “Some are very supportive of being fiscally responsible. Some are maybe a little bit more lenient when it comes to what they want to spend.”
The committee will meet again today, on Dec. 5th, to decide what they will propose to the board on Dec. 9.
“The goals for the next meeting would be to narrow it down to, like, a decision to where this is what we would put in front of the board,” says Clark, “and the board would ultimately make the decision to say this is the best plan moving forward for us.”
