The McDonald County R-1 School District Board of Education, in a work session before its Sept. 12 meeting, discussed another possible location for the future field house.
Lindsay Reichert of Paragon, the architect for the project, said following the recent public forum that Paragon had a meeting with coaches and the administration and decided on a location. At that meeting, they also discussed what should go in the field house, including a 40-by-40 indoor practice area, training room, locker rooms, laundry facility, weight room, storage, office and small conference room, film room and potentially a lobby, she said.
The location suggested for the building is in front of the performing arts center, obscuring part of the building.
Board member Andy McClain questioned, "We put millions of dollars into this building and now we're going to cover it up?"
Board member Chris Smith said he would rather cover up one building than obscure the entire view of the campus, as with the previous planned site on the practice field.
Members had other concerns as well. There was a safety concern, with the space between the field house and PAC forming a "tunnel," and a parking concern, with the building potentially going up in the middle of the parking lot.
Reichert said in the former location on the practice field, there were additional expenses including a retaining wall and having to landscape all sides of the building. In regards to the parking lot concern, she said if this was determined to be the best location, Paragon would do a traffic study.
Dr. Scott Goldstein, school board president, noted that the last proposal the board rejected was rejected because it was too far from the school and it took out part of the parking lot.
Reichert presented the board with three parts of a plan, A, B and C. A was the fieldhouse. B was visitors' lockers and storage with a potential area for officials. C was a plan to renovate the existing stage in the gym into a weight room.
The board voted to move forward with schematic design on A, B and C.
In the regular meeting, Jessica Struckhoff of Paragon updated the board on the work on the safe room at Noel Primary School. She said the foundation will be started in October, steel in November and project completion is set for July.
In other business, the board approved:
• Allowing FFA students to attend the National FFA Convention in Indiana.
• Allowing FCCLA students to attend the National Fall Leadership Conference and Skills Demonstration Competition in Dallas.
• Allowing DECA students to attend a National Leadership Conference.
• Allowing director of technology Robin Leonard to seek bids for 15 interactive boards to replace old smart boards.
• Bids for electrical and drywall for the central office. The drywall bid was from Harnar Construction for $17,400, and the electrical bid was from Henson Electrical for $2,132.
General News on 09/19/2019