Waukee Facility Committee

1
Waukee Facility Committee

• Recommendation to Board of Education
• February 27, 2007

2
Committee Membership

• Becky Brdicko
• Dave Duncan
• Leonard Gutshall
• Julie Harvey
• Tracy Jagim
• Renee Menz
• Jane Patton
• Kent Porter
• Kris Urban

3
School Board Expectations

• Number one priority is keeping classrooms out in
  front of students (class sizes)
• Take the state of Waukee Elementary into
  consideration
• Specifically, can we replace it?
• Consider programming and activity needs of a 4A
  School

4
Guiding Principles

• Through discussion - a set of Guiding Principles
  were generated by the group.
• They include the following
• 1.Our desired outcome is to provide the best
  possible learning environment for the children
  served by the Waukee School District.
• We will provide enough classrooms to keep ahead
  of projected enrollment growth, while assuring
  reasonable and appropriate class size.
• We will consider options of updating or replacing
  Waukee Elementary.

5
Guiding Principles

1. We will maximize academic, co-curricular and
   extracurricular opportunities while optimizing
   resources.
2. We believe smaller student populations promote a
   safe, secure and supportive environment, and
   therefore we recommend facilities for grades 6
   through 9 not exceed 1000 students.
3. We believe that students should be grouped
   together into configurations similar to those
   currently in place for grades 6 through 12, with
   exceptions made only during brief transitional
   periods.

6
Guiding Principles

• We support developmentally appropriate smaller
  learning communities organized around teaming
  structures within the same building.
• We believe buildings that share resources should
  be located in close proximity.
• Our recommendation will, to the extent possible,
  limit the number of student transitions (shifts
  to different buildings).
• Our recommendation will stay within the bonding
  capacity limit.
• Our recommendation should meet overwhelming
  public approval so it will be approved by the
  school board, and generate more than the required
  60 yes votes for a bond issue.

7
Timeline of Work

• Meetings began November 20, 2006 with a targeted
  completion of February 2007.
• The committee met 9 times
• There were 3 site visits
• Johnston - Summit MS
• Linn-Mar - Oak Ridge School (K-8)
• West Des Moines - Valley Southwoods (9th)

8
Considerations/Discussions

• We spent a great deal of time discussing and
  researching the question of how big is too big.
• Discussion included
• Optimal building capacities at the 6-7 level, 8-9
  level and the 10-12 building.
• Crowded buildings/over capacity is not
  acceptable.
• Our committee favored smaller learning
  communities (2-4 member teams of 50-100 students).

9
Considerations/Discussions

• We looked at a number of different plans and
  configurations
• K-8
• Making elementary schools K-6
• Putting all 6th graders in one building perhaps
  at the W.E. site
• We looked at Johnstons Summit with grades 5-8.
• We learned that our existing K-5 facilities are
  about as structurally big as they can get so no
  expansion is feasible.

10
Considerations/Discussions

• We considered school imbalance -- making some
  schools larger or smaller than others, having
  some schools where 6th graders would be paired
  with 7-8 and some schools with 6-9, for example)
• We looked at making some schools that could
  accommodate one age set of kids during a
  transition period, then go to another age set of
  kids
• We looked at transforming some existing schools
  so they could handle different grades than they
  currently serve.

11
Considerations/Discussions

• Visits to Linn-Mar, Johnston and West Des Moines
  taught us
• We liked the communities at Summit and the
  teams or houses at Southwoods this taught us
  that you can have an effective learning
  environment in a larger school if you break it
  into smaller communities - which re-affirmed our
  commitment to smaller learning communities.
• We learned at Summit that you can combine some
  age groups in one building if they are separated
  physically and with different bell systems.

12
Considerations/Discussions

• We re-affirmed in our visit to Valley South Woods
  the benefit of not having 9th graders in the
  10-12 facility (disciplinary reasons, emotional
  reasons)
• We looked at transitional schools for example,
  building a 5-7 as a transitional school to fill a
  gap, then transition it into a 6-9 school. 
• Linn-Mar re-affirmed our commitment to the
  current grade configuration in Waukee.

13
Our Recommendations

• The Committee Recommends
• A referendum be held in January 2008 for between
  65-70 million for the following projects.
• Classroom additions to Prairieview to open fall
  of 2009.
• A new elementary to open July 2010.
• A new middle school facility to open in July 2010.

14
Our Recommendations

• The final classroom additions for Waukee High
  School, to open in July 2011.
• A new elementary, to either replace Waukee
  Elementary, or meet increased enrollment needs,
  to open in July 2012.

15
Our Recommendations

• This recommendation provides the board with some
  flexibility - if growth accelerates or slows
  down.
• This recommendation can be accomplished with NO
  INCREASE IN THE DISTRICT TAX RATE.

16
(No Transcript)
17
Connects to Guiding Principles

• Number of student transition remains the same as
  current, regardless of year in the plan
• Provide classrooms to stay ahead of projected
  enrollments.
• Consider Options for W.E. - recommendation to
  replace rather than update.
• Facilities for grades 6-9 should not exceed 1,000
  students.
• While we have some transitions, we ultimately
  return to our 6-7, 8-9, 10-12 groupings.

18
Questions for the Committee

• Based on what you have heard, what questions
  remain regarding the recommendations?