By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Hays USD 489 broke ground Thursday on a $21.9M expansion and renovation project for Roosevelt Elementary School.
The school will be able to accommodate 690 students once the renovations are complete. The school also is getting a new media center and a new gym, which will double as a storm shelter.
Construction work will begin next week. The project is scheduled to be completed in December 2024.
"This is the beginning of some really big stuff for our district, for our community, but more importantly this is a big step for our students as well as Roosevelt staff," Hays USD 489 Superintendent Ron Wilson said.
"Two years ago we started something that many people told me, 'Ron, that's impossible. You are never going to get a bond passed and you are never going to get the bond passed you are getting out there,'" he said.
"I said, 'Oh, just watch.' We are going to get it done, and we did," Wilson said.
He said the bond passed because people knew they needed to provide quality facilities for the future of the community, the children and the staff, he said.
"We value what we do here in USD 489," he said. ... "I'm so appreciative to the voters who were committed to the dream to get this started. This is just the first of several big projects that are coming."
School board President Craig Palliser said he has been on a thank-you tour for the last years since the bond passed.
"There are so many people in this town and school district who supported the needs of our kids and our families," he said. "This is a key example of growing Hays.
"One of the biggest thank you's as we move around the district is to the teachers, staff and administration who have been in rooms that were too hot, rooms that were too little and tornado shelters that were creepy.
"Our kids deserve a good place and our teachers deserve a good place to teach. Our parents deserve a good place where their kids are safe every day and they are learning," Pallister said.
David Clingan of Grow Hays, who chaired the community bond committee, said the project was a team effort.
"The team effort says it all about where our values are, how we want to set our children up for success for the future and our teachers," he said. "I'm just really proud of how we've come together."
The entire construction area will be fenced to keep children from wandering into the construction zone, which will be on the north side of the school.
Modular classrooms are being brought in during the construction. The school's older students will use these classrooms.
Work on a new high school will begin later this summer.