ALDEN — Results from the second round of voting are in.

In November, Alden and Conger voters approved a referendum that would allow the Alden-Conger school district to repurpose approximately $1 million in funding the district levied for but did not use for the initial project because it came in under budget.

Afterward, Superintendent Brian Shanks asked them to vote in a survey on how they would like to prioritize projects that fall under the umbrella of facilities spending. Just under 30 people attended the Wednesday evening community meeting in the Alden-Conger gymnasium, during which Shanks presented those results.

Results shared indicated just over 100 people took the survey and identified the community’s top three priorities were to renovate existing sports fields, repair and expand the elementary playground equipment and build a three-stall garage with storage.

“A million dollars sounds like a lot, and we can get some projects done, but it isn’t going to get all the projects done,” Shanks said. “Whatever we get done is going to be a positive for the district.”

Forty-one respondents ranked the sports fields renovations as their first priority, a figure almost double the next-highest projects identified as top priority (and tied for fourth priority in the overall list, which calculated all rankings from 1 to 5).

However, all the projects on the community survey will come after the completion of four projects that were not included in the survey, which Shanks identified as important for the school to address.

First on the list is a water infiltration issue in the school’s oldest bank of classrooms on the east side of the building.

“When we have a heavy rainstorm with a strong wind out of the east, we have water coming into the classrooms,” Shanks said.

He said the district replaced all the windows, which helped, but did not fix the problem. A construction company recommended scraping out and re-caulking the classrooms’ expansion joints.

“That (project) I see as there’s really no discussion,” Shanks said. “We’ve got to take care of that. We’ve got to address that.”

Community survey responses also identified a bathroom facelift. This would include fixing ceilings, improving floors, new sinks and replacing doors. Additionally, the school district intends to replace the middle school lockers and cover a pit in one corner of the football field that houses a water meter and Shanks said is “not the safest thing in the world.”

While the superintendent said he does not have the hard numbers now for those projects or any others on the survey list, he said he does not expect the four projects to substantially dent funds to use for surveyed projects.

“I don’t think those are going to be big money takers-away,” he said.

Rita Korman, who attended Alden-Conger as a student and sent her children to Alden-Conger schools, said it made sense for the district to prioritize those needs.

“It seemed logical to me,” she said. “If there were things that need to be done to use that money first for that rather than come later and say they need more money to do things.”

Korman did not support the November referendum, citing what she sees as an already-nice school supported by an agricultural community already feeling financial pressures.

She noted the lack of hard data on project costs, but recognized the project is in its early stages.

“(It’s) hard to make decisions without that,” she said.

Future decisions on what projects will be completed out of the community-prioritized list will fall on the school board’s shoulders, Shanks said. Once he receives bids for the sports fields renovations, playground equipment and garage with storage, the board will begin to make decisions on which and how many projects the district can complete.

“No matter what we do, we’ll gather the costs, we’ll look at the prices, and then we’ll decide, ‘Yes, this is what we can do,’ (or) ‘No that’s too much — we’ve got to keep moving down the line,’” he said.

Afterward, companies will be contacted to create a new timeline for the projects, and eventually, another summer construction season will begin, Shanks said.

 

Sports fields renovations

At the meeting, the superintendent identified for the community potential areas of improvement for each of the district’s fields, including baseball, softball, football and elementary softball fields.

Possible baseball field renovations could include

• Tiling the baseball field to help with a water issue

• Irrigation put in, similar to what the football field is using

• Work on the infield and outfield, the latter of which slopes

• Paint and shingles for the dugouts

• Scoreboard changes

• Fencing work for the field, and

• Work on the driveway to the field, which Shanks said is washing away.

The softball field is in North Park. Shanks said the district is working with the city on the possibility of entering into a long-term lease with the city to, essentially, make the field the school’s.

“We’ve got some work to do there,” he said. “We’re just beginning that process.”

The softball field doesn’t have dugouts, so constructing some is a possibility. Additionally, Shanks suggested looking at a new scoreboard option — the current one is manual — as well as working on the infield and outfield and replacing the current temporary fencing.

On the football field, suggestions from the survey included work on home seating. Shanks also said there could be work done on the scoreboard, the crow’s nest and improving visitor seating.

The elementary softball fields do not currently have any fencing, so erecting a fence would create a “true field,” Shanks said. Additionally, there is the possibility to provide seating.

“Right now when we use it … there’s really no seating available,” he said. “It’s bring your own.”

 

Playground equipment

Work on the elementary playground would be an expansion on the current offerings, Shanks said. The swings need some work, and the existing jungle gym needs some repairs.

However, if the district moves forward with renovating existing equipment, Shanks said playground equipment professionals have informed him the current playground surfacing — pea gravel — is not ADA compliant.

“We would have to get all the pea rock out of there and put another kind of surface in there,” Shanks said. The most inexpensive ADA-approved option is similar to a wood chip, he said.

In addition to renovations, the district could also add new equipment.

 

Three-stall garage with storage

While Shanks originally suggested creating a garage with second-floor storage, he said community feedback broached lean-to storage as an option. The proposed new garage could be a steel building with side buildings used for PE, football and volleyball storage.

 

Other projects

Other survey results did not make the top-three cut. Those list items included constructing a supermileage/metals shop and paving parking lots, which tied for fourth place; constructing a loading dock, which came in at a fifth priority; and a school-run day care program, which brought up the rear.

Though the community ranked it last on the list, Shanks said he sees the day care having a place in the future of the district. The district sees retention from its free preschool.

“Essentially, our preschool is a feeder program for kindergarten,” he said.

A day care, then, could operate as a feeder for the preschool.

“Would you see a school-run day care as being financially sustainable without using tax dollars?” attendee Cheryl Reynolds asked. Reynolds attended Alden-Conger and sent her children through the district, she said.

Shanks said though it would be a bit of a leap of faith, he predicts it would be a program self-sustaining on charged fees.

“This is something that I believe is an important part of the future of Alden-Conger Public Schools to continue to explore,” he said.

Scott Hemmingsen — owner of bus company Hemmingsen Transfer that does the school’s bus service, husband of an Alden-Conger teacher and parent to children in the district — said he sees day care being implemented for the district within five years. He said he did agree with the priority order identified by the community, and supported the referendum. He saw the turnout and community response as a show of good faith.

“The town has faith in our school board, the way it looks to me,” he said.