KELLY SCHOOLS: SPACE SOLUTIONS SOUGHT

BENTON -- Classroom space is limited in the Kelly School District, and school officials want patrons to tell them what to do next.

Questionnaires were sent to district patrons last week seeking solutions to the lack of space for the district's 1,056 students.

"We certainly anticipate it will take some type of bonding proposal," said Superintendent Don Abner. "We're just not sure at what scale we'll consider that."

Kelly schools have experienced enrollment growth since 1993. The district's narrow hallways are packed with students between class periods, and lunch periods are kept crowded and short so that everyone can be fed, Abner said.

Six mobile units and all available storage space have been converted to classrooms for all grades. With a growing elementary enrollment and a freshman class that makes up about a third of the high school's 344 students, there isn't an unused space, Abner said.

"We have no physical space inside the facility now to provide anymore classrooms," he said. "You just have to adjust and do what's necessary."

Voters have historically rejected bond issues for the school district, voting down four in recent years.

Most recently, voters rejected a $4.5 million bond issue in April and again in June that would have financed construction of a high school and allowed for future expansion of at least 500 students.

The bond would have doubled the district's debt service levy to 98 cents to cover new construction costs for 20 classrooms, a multipurpose cafeteria, science lab and storage.

The proposal also included a vocational-agriculture building on the school campus.

The bond proposal was developed by a building committee of faculty, parents and students, and would have been repaid over 20 years.

Because voters rejected what school officials thought was the district's best plan to expand, voters will be asked to develop the next proposal.

In the questionnaires, district patrons are asked to rank possible solutions by preference. Examples of possible measures to reduce overcrowding include: year-round school, extended school days, elimination of some programs and activities, adding mobile classroom units, developing a smaller-scale construction project and building a new high school as previously presented to voters.

School officials will spend the next month compiling results and determining what measures patrons might support financially.

Short-term solutions could be implemented during the school year, but Abner said eventually voters will have to approve some type of expansion plan.

"I think the community needs to look to some long-term solutions to the problem." he said. "I don't see how we can avoid that."