MONROE — The facilities committee investigating long-term improvements to the Monroe public schools brought an $85.9 million recommendation to the Monroe Board of Education during its meeting July 8.
The recommendation comes after 16 months of investigation, meetings, tours and planning by the 14-member committee. The option chosen addresses virtually all of the district’s urgent facility needs and was among the lowest in cost of the 10 final options considered. Cost estimates and preliminary design work was produced by the engineering and architectural firms Plunkett Raysich Architects, LLP out of Madison and CG Schmidt.
The option forwarded by the committee is not binding and is currently for the school board’s consideration. Should the board eventually settle on a plan, it would go before district voters at a future referendum.
The need for such extensive local public schools renovations was explained bluntly by facilities committee member and local teacher Tim Brown.
“It became obvious to our committee that we were in a bad situation right away,” Brown said. “Anyone else coming in looking at the buildings in our district … they would tear down every building we have and start new.”
The cost of the options considered varied from $149.5 million to $82.7 million. The committee’s recommendation was a compromise that reached goals while being frugal. Committee member, Monroe High School graduate and local businessman Jason Kundert said the committee doggedly sought options that would spend money wisely.
“… With our proposal we take care of a majority of the district’s urgent maintenance needs,” Kundert said. “We also took into consideration the local tax impact of the options. We couldn’t forward an option that would have a price tag that would be astronomical. It would never pass (a referendum).”
The recommended option
The facilities committee recommended restructuring the grade levels at some buildings and making a district-wide effort to improve all education spaces. The recommended option calls for $58 million in new construction and the remainder in remodeling existing structures.
The biggest change would be a two-story addition and renovation to the high school that would expand that facility and turn it into a joint high school/middle school. Students of different grade levels would be separated in different wings of the building. The district would take advantage of shared spaces such as the athletic facilities and performing arts center for both schools.
Classroom portions of the existing high school would be renovated for middle school use and a new high school area would be added. The high school/middle school would be connected by common spaces to use efficiencies in design. Current urgent needs, such as drainage under the existing high school, the low R-ratings of roofs, increasing the ease of flow in the high school and upgrading many outdated areas, are addressed in the forwarded option. The option mainly deals with the high school, middle school and Abraham Lincoln Elementary School. Northside Elementary School and Parkside Elementary School have undergone or are undergoing improvements.
Another major change for the district is that the option calls for Abraham Lincoln Elementary School to be demolished and Monroe moving to two primary schools instead of three.
In the future, under plans in the option, the high school/middle school would be for students in grades 7-12. The existing middle school would be an intermediate school for students in grades 4-6. Both Northside Elementary School and Parkside Elementary School would remain open providing 4K-3 education.
The option uses 62 percent newly constructed space and 38 percent existing space for future education.
District Administrator Rick Waski said the projected tax impact of the $85.9 million referendum, if approved as is, would be an additional $2.50 in taxes per each $1,000 of property value over 20 years. For every $100,000 in property owned in the district, a taxpayer would be required to pay an additional $250 a year in school property taxes. Waski said this would be on a 20-year loan. The board will hear more about the tax impacts due to the option at its July 22 meeting.
The considerations
Committee member and retired MHS teacher John Emmons said being a part of the committee helped him understand the crucial needs of improving the district’s facilities.
He said he was surprised that of all the district’s current buildings, the middle school is in the best shape. He went into detail about the comprehensive problems at Abe Lincoln Elementary School.
“Abraham Lincoln is a disaster,” Emmons said. “It’s a money pit.”
Emmons said the high school also has many significant problems.
Visitors to the high school often find difficulty moving from the front office portion of the building to the gymnasiums and Performing Arts Center. In good weather, students often exit the classroom portion of the building, walk around the outside of the facility and reenter the high school near the PAC to eliminate having to walk through a maze of hallways and stairwells.
Emmons said the committee put “a lot of hard work and research” into finalizing its recommendation. Overall it considered 17 options and narrowed that list to 10 finalists before settling on what is the forwarded option.
“This isn’t something that was done haphazardly,” Emmons said.
The option chosen by the committee on internal committee paperwork is known as “Option 8.”
Discussing the options
Since it began work in September of 2017, the committee moved forward with a plan and goals with supplied information regarding the thoughts of local taxpayers through a residential survey. Overall, the committee tried to mesh what it found to be considerable immediate needs to improve facilities, and the ability of the tax base to afford such improvements.
Members of the facilities committee included: Brown, Ann Doyle, Emmons, Kundert, Nate Lancaster, Ron Markham, Joe Monroe, Chris Mendenwaldt, Jeff Newcomer, Ron Olson, Andrea Sweeney, Amy Timmerman, Waski and Rich Zentner. Monroe is the director of pupil services and Newcomer is the MHS activities director. The committee included many MHS graduates, former and current teachers, businesspeople and parents of children in the district.
Members of the committee discussed the needs for all of the improvements in the option chosen. PRA and CGS made some drawings of changes to the high school campus and cost estimates for options on behalf of the committee.
All but one of the 10 final options included closing Abraham Lincoln Elementary School after its upgrades and repairs were estimated at over $8 million. The committee was advised by PRA and CGS that razing the facility and building a new replacement would cost less.
The committee toured all of Monroe’s current facilities. While discussing the needs at each building, the committee also made tours of four other school districts in the state -- Berlin, Ripon, Brown Deer and Port Washington. Those districts each recently went through renovations that included a referendum that updated school facilities using new and existing space.
Lancaster said the committee focused on the existing and future needs of the community. He said he considered what communities like Mineral Point and New Glarus have done with their schools, since he said they are viewed as having some of the nicest public schools in the area.
Moving forward
The board of education will continue to receive information on the option the committee chose and can seek more information on other options it wishes to explore. The board announced they plan to solicit community feedback on the proposed plan before coming to a conclusion and plan to issue a district-wide survey to all residents in late summer or early fall.
Waski and several of the board members thanked the committee for its efforts over a long period of time.
“We’ve learned a lot to come up with a recommendation,” Waski said.
He said there are so many components to the option that upon first glance it’s like “taking a sip of water through a fire hydrant.”
Some of the smaller details that came out of the discussion include that the option would need to purchase 10 acres of land near the high school, because its campus would need to expand. The high school/middle school campus would include new parking lots.
Markham said ensuring the community is aware of the need for the project is a task for the board moving forward.
“Every year we wait, the more it’s going to cost,” Markham said.