Second school facility meeting draws more than 100

     Ideas about which school buildings or additions need to be built, and at which sites, swirled throughout Monticello Middle School during a Community Meeting Wednesday, Feb. 21.

     This was the second such meeting, about the future of Monticello Community School District Facilities, and was attended by more than 100 people.

     It was another step in the goal of coming up with a solution in time for a bond issue vote in September.

     The event started with a tour of the middle school building. Those in attendance were split into four groups, each of which toured various rooms in the building.

     Two of the tours were led by eighth-grade students; Elise Kehoe and Piper Hansen led one; another was led by Grant Hospodarsky and Carter Kurt.

     In each case, citizens were shown some of the issues associated with the 95-year-old building: noisy radiators, noticeable temperature changes from room to room, exposed wiring and burning hot radiators in some rooms, asbestos in the floor tiles, limited space in certain rooms, lack of handicapped-accessibility, and more.

     The groups then went to four separate stations to discuss options for Monticello’s school buildings.

     OPN Architects had provided potential options, in the form of “what if” posters, each with a possible solution.

     Some of them had seventh and eighth grade being added to the high school. Some had Shannon as a key site, either for addition of elementary grades or construction of an entirely new K-6 building.

     Some of the plans had all the buildings on the high school campus, others were split between two sites.

     MCSD Superintendent Brian Jaeger cautioned, however, that the “what if” posters were for discussion purposes only.

     “These are not the answers,” Jaeger said, “these are to help us pose the questions.”

     Later, he added, “This is the way to get started, to start to have a conversation about what’s going to stick, and what’s not going to stick. Then things start getting crossed off the list, or things start getting added to the list.”

     Roger Worm of OPN agreed.

     “That’s the whole purpose of tonight,” Worm said. “We’re not trying to come in with, ‘This is the solution.’ These are talking points just to get those conversations going.”

     Each tour group was accompanied by an OPN representative, who then facilitated discussion on what the district should do. Each representative then reported to the larger group.

     The current middle school was generally considered a non-starter in small group discussions.

     “My group was very unanimous about not renovating the middle school,” Susan Bowersox of OPN said.

     Groups were more split, however, on which buildings should go where.

     “Our group was quite split between the idea of a centralized campus vs. two different sites,” said Bryan Mann of OPN.

     Some ideas came out clearly.

     “Adding grades 7-8 onto the (high school) building is definitely one of the well-received options,” Worm said, referring to his focus group.

     Reporting for her group, OPN’s Vicki Hyland said: “Our consensus points were, we don’t want four attendance centers, we like the idea of an addition to the high school, we like the idea of combining the elementary schools to one building, and we have concerns about putting it at one campus because of accessibility.”

     Additional topics came up in the various groups, including security needs, energy performance, how students who walk or ride a bicycle to school would navigate a central campus, keeping grade levels separate if there are several in one building, and others.

     With a September bond issue vote looming, Jaeger both urged the public to continue to provide feedback and keep the conversation going.

     Worm said: “Our next step coming out of here tonight is to take all of this information that we’ve gathered and start to put in pockets where they start to shape a similar story. And that helps us storyboard a direction of where we are headed.

     “This isn’t the end of it for you. Keep a running list, and let the district know. Don’t ever stop letting your thoughts come out. Pros or cons, good or bad, bring on the worst comments you want, the challenges. We want to address them so that we can, without bias, get the story right for you, and the end result in September will speak for itself.”

     (Express Editor Kim Brooks also contributed to this article.)