The McDonald County R-1 School District Board of Education, at its Jan. 9 meeting, asked its architect, Paragon, for more options on a new weight room.
Last month the board learned that a new weight room, which would be built in the stage area of the high school gym, would cost $1,463,700. The news came in the wake of hearing that the field house would cost $2,972,500. At the time, the board voted to put the field house on hold and move forward with the weight room.
On Jan. 9, however, some board members had different thoughts. Board member Beth Buckingham called the weight room "way too expensive."
Board member Andy McClain said, "I'm not going to support a $1.4 million weight room. I just don't think it's a good way to spend our money."
Lindsay Reichert of Paragon said the project involves putting a whole new structure on top of an existing structure and "there's a lot to it."
Board member Chris Smith advocated for the project, saying the board had gone through a lot of steps to find out what was most important to employees. He also noted the project did not have disadvantages of new buildings such as blocking other buildings from view or taking up parking spaces.
Reichert asked if the board had a target budget and said the company would be glad to take another look at the project.
Board members had a discussion about how much the new business building, which was created from an existing structure, cost. It cost $750,000.
Smith made a motion to continue the project and Josh Banta seconded it. The vote was a three to four split. Voting yes were Chris Smith, Josh Banta and Jeff Cooper. Voting no were Dr. Scott Goldstein, Andy McClain, Frank Woods and Beth Buckingham.
After the motion was voted down, Paragon owner Brad Erwin said the company would be happy to provide more options that might fit within the school district's budget. They will return at the next meeting on Monday, Feb. 10.
In other business, Matthew Holloway spoke about the annual summer work experience program for high school juniors with disabilities. Each year the program gives six juniors work experience and classroom time when they build a resume and talk about job skills such as communication skills. Workers are employed during the program at both Stangs and Anderson Elementary School. The board approved the use of the elementary school for the program this summer.
General News on 01/16/2020