Workshop Seeks Input to Set School Bond Terms

A workshop will take place next Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 15 for the final planning stages of the upcoming school bond, which Orcas Islanders will vote on next February. Late in October, the Orcas Island School District (OISD) board selected Mahlum Architects to oversee the [intlink id=”school-architects-meet-the-public-on-orcas-this-week” type=”post”]building project[/intlink].

OISD Superintendent Barbara Kline, says, “We are seeking public input in this process before [the School Board] makes their final decisions as to the scope of the projects.”

On Tuesday, the board will need to determine the scope of the bond that will be requested from the community in February;[intlink id=”dry-but-important-school-board-meeting-mulls-enrollment-budget-bond-and-levy-situations” type=”post”] that bond is currently estimated to cost about $25 million[/intlink].  With those funds, the school district plans to build a new Career Technical Education (CTE) building, a new middle school, cafeteria and music room.  Upgrades to the elementary and old gym and high school as well as to the fields and grounds are also planned.

Kline says, “This is a lot to get done and we want to do all of it to a very high quality so that we are creating long lasting, and sustainable buildings that work well for our students and for our community.” The architects from Mahlum have been working with the studies of our facilities and with community groups and staff to come up with the plan and approximate costs for completing what needs to be done.”

At Tuesday’s workshop, Mahlum Architects will talk about what they have seen and what the studies of the facilities show. They will also discuss available options to complete the work needed, and will bring in cost estimates and options to upgrade indoor and outdoor spaces.

The first step in the process is to decide upon what is absolutely needed in terms of square footage and programming space; that will determine the bond amount to go up for voter approval.

Once the approved amount of money is known, the actual construction design and timeline will be set, said Cathy Ferran, Administrative Assistant to Kline. “We are hoping everyone can attend what we feel is another important meeting  in this process. Our School Board asks that the public please participate in  an upcoming School Board/Bond Workshop next Tuesday, Dec. 15 in the School Cafeteria,” said Ferran.

Tuesday is an opportunity to invite the public to participate in the process of determining what should be accomplished with the upcoming bond. “We may have to decide to leave some of our hopes until a future bond because we cannot get everything done with this bond,” said Kline.

Anyone who is interested in hearing about the plans-to-date or who would like to help determine the scope of this bond is invited to attend the workshop and participate in the discussion.

“Mahlum has done some great work in thinking about what we could do here, said Kline. “We have collected good information about what we would like to have done and the current condition of our facilities.  Now is the opportunity to determine what we plan to do with the funds we will ask for in February.

“After we pass the bond, Mahlum will get to work on actual designs for the new spaces.  That design process will take about a year and result in plans that will be ready to go to contractors for bids.

“Right now, we are still looking at the big picture:  What kinds of spaces and how big are the spaces and what upgrades are needed and how much will these cost and what changes to the fields are needed and how much will these cost?

“It is very exciting and we would very much appreciate the input and particpation of any and all interested community members.”

The workshop will begin at 2 p.m.in the school cafeteria and precedes the (re-scheduled) regular monthly Board Meeting which convenes at 5:30 p.m.