BY CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays school board's architectural firm, DLR, is recommending a state of the district survey prior to any more work on a bond issue.
The board heard a presentation from DLR on Monday night about the services it would provide if the district decides to move forward with another bond attempt.
The district used DLR in a failed bond attempt in 2017. The district also had a failed bond attempt in 2016.
Under its contract with the district, DLR has an opportunity to be a part of two more bond attempts. As part of that contract, DLR has not charged the district for services thus far.
"One of the things we have learned, unfortunately the hard way, when there is a failed bond, it really is a good time to step back and do a little bit of post-bond surveying or conversation with your community," said Kevin Greischar, principal architect K-12 education leader for DLR.
Stephanie Meyer is the education funding specialists with DLR, which is a new full-time marketing position with the company since Hays' last bond issue.
A state of the district survey would set a baseline for what the community thinks at large about the district and if there are any pressure points, she said.
The survey could also ask residents about what they thought about the last bond issue and if they are open to another bond attempt, she said.
DLR is proposing a format similar to the last bond issue for building a new proposal. This would include a team of administrators, a team of student and teachers and a community team providing input on the project.
"Typically it is a process for us to educate everyone about the conditions of the buildings," Greischar said. "You have been going through buildings since you have been on the board this year and maybe even before. ...
"You're getting educated, but most times the community drives by their buildings if they went there or if they took their kids there. They look the same since they were there, so they think they must be in good shape."
However, Greischar said the community doesn't see the rusted pipes as the board saw on Monday night during a tour of Roosevelt Elementary School.
He said it is important to talk about what the educational space for USD 489 needs to look like.
"It doesn't look like 30 chairs in a classroom looking at a chalkboard with a teacher behind a desk," Greischar said.
Board member Lori Hertel said the focus must be on the needs of kids.
"There has got to be a way to draw that passion out of individuals that this is about the pipes but it is also about the children," she said. "Everything is about children in some way. We have to instill that in what we develop. ...
"It is not about us. It is not about the community members. It is about the children who are learning in these buildings."
Greischar said DLR has done research and found student and teacher engagement was most dependent on well being. That includes not being too hot or too cold, an issues that has been a problem across district buildings.
Board member Tammy Wellbrock asked how DLR would incorporate economic development into a bond campaign.
Greischar said DLR has been tracking home values, median income and enrollment in communities that have completed large bond issues in the last 10 years, including El Dorado, Dodge City and Liberal.
In all of those communities, those measures increased after the bond construction was finished, he said.
Tom Wasinger, community member and member of the 2017 bond Vision Team, addressed the board at the meeting Monday on what he saw as some of the failings of the last bond issue.
Wasinger strongly recommended the board not conduct a school bond survey until after the vote on two county-wide sales taxes. Ballots will be mailed at the end of this month on the county tax questions. They are due back to the county clerk's office by April 7.
Wasinger said he did not think DLR understood the nature of Ellis County politics during the last election.
In 2017, Wasinger said he thought the district ignored their poll data and rushed the process.
Wasinger voted against the proposal that the rest of the Vision Team ultimately recommended to the school board.
He said there is a need to have more people on the community group that are not solidly behind a bond.
"The balance was so off. There was no way that people who had a different opinion could get any traction," Wasinger said of the 2017 Vision Team.
However, he said he did not know if it was possible to find people in opposition who would be willing to sit through the hours of bond meetings.
Wasinger said he thinks the district needs another approach to the community member piece of the bond process.
Board member Craig Pallister emphasized DLR was visiting with the board as a very preliminary piece of developing a bond issue. He said the board and administration would need to do much more studying before it takes on any proposal.