PERRYVILLE CONSIDERS PLAN FOR HIGH SCHOOL

PERRYVILLE -- The Perry County School District Board of Education wants to build a high school to ease overcrowding in the district.

But they are worried about selling the project to district voters. It carries a price tag of nearly $14 million.

School board members and administrators met Wednesday with architect David Kromm of Kromm, Rikimaru and Johansen to review preliminary plans for a new school.

Plans show the school totaling 141,000 square feet with room for 1,000 students. Total price tag is $13.7 million, including $12,575,000 for construction and a $1.15 million for contingencies.

As it stands, funding the school would mean a 67-cent increase in the school district's tax levy of $2.68 per $100 assessed valuation.

Those numbers could change as plans for the school are refined.

As part of the building program and a building reorganization, the school district will also ask voters for an increase in the operating levy to fund salary increases to bring the district's pay scale in line with neighboring schools, and additional personnel and supplies and equipment.

District officials are still working on the numbers for the operating levy increase, Miller said.

The school district will go to voters to approve a bond issue to fund construction of the high school. It has not been decided when that issue will appear on the ballot.

If the high school is built, the existing attendance centers will be reorganized to redistribute enrollment, said Dr. Rex Miller, superintendent of schools.

The new school would house students in grades nine through 12. Students in grades six through eight would be moved from the middle school to the existing high school.

Students in grades three through five would be moved into the existing middle school. The existing grade school would house the early childhood program, kindergarten and first-grade classes. The building that now houses the early childhood program would probably be used for expanded early childhood education or as administrative space, Miller said.

The district's growth is in the elementary grades, he said. Building a high school with room for more students and dividing up the elementary grades would give both programs room to grow.

Elementary class sizes average 25 to 26 students, Miller said. "We know that if we get them smaller, we can do even better," he said.

In addition, state-mandated early childhood and special-education programs have eaten up classroom space at all of the campuses, so more room is needed.

Districtwide enrollment is approximately 2,400 students.

School officials say they are a little worried about how district voters will react to the levy increases.

"The cost is what's out in front of us more than anything," said Dennis Martin, president of the board of education.

He told board members Wednesday that they will have to make sure "there's not an ounce of fat" in the building program to gain voter approval.

But at the same time, board members pointed out that the new high school would have to be big enough to handle continued growth.

The building project and operating levy increase grew out of suggestions from the district's long-range planning committee, which is studying ways to improve educational services in the district.

School board members and Kromm will meet with the long-range planning committee Monday at 6 p.m. in the middle-school cafeteria to discuss the building project and operating levy increase.

The committee will help decide when to seek the levy increases and finalize building plans.

Wednesday's discussion also indicated the district might seek the levy increases at two separate elections -- one for the operating levy increase and one for the new building.