Growing course options force portable addition

Due to expanded number of course offerings, the high school will receive a second partable for the 2018-2018 school year.

It will be placed on the north end of the school near the art room and student parking lot. The facility will hold two classrooms, each equipped with two bathrooms, handicap accessibility, as well as heating and cooling.

The portable will be transported from Southdale Elementary to the high school. Construction is planned to start around June 4. Due to Aldrich Elementary School opening in the fall, Southdale Elementary will have a decrease in students, opening up space in the building.

“We don’t have any other viable spots besides putting it out front. It will definitely draw some attention, no doubt. It is going to be an eyesore,” Principal Jason Wedgbury said, but student parking is safe.

“We can’t give up parking. We cannot put it in the parking lot because we already have enough trouble with parking. We already have one portable on the backside, so we don’t really have space for another one than to put it out front,” Wedgbury said.

The high school’s other portable located on the west side of the building was once used for classrooms but now houses robotics equipment.

The new portable  will cost $161,878 for the contractor to put the tilings in the ground and put the ramps to the building and hook all the utilities up. It was also cost an additional $22,000 to have a different company physically move the building from Southdale to the high school according to Director of Business Affairs and Board Secretary Doug Nefzger.

The addition of the portable is a necessary for the growing district, though the high school still faces many needs.

“We have the heat going out. We are trying to put patchwork on things. Sometimes the floors get wet. Sometimes you see rain coming in on the backside of the windows in the math area. There is a lot that goes into the upkeep. It’s awful,” Wedgbury said. “We are spending a lot of money trying to keep this a manageable building, and sometimes it is not manageable.”

However, with a growing district and a school in a very landlocked location, it is hard to determine how long these portables will last and how many will be needed in the future.

“As we look at enrollment projections across the district especially at the high school building, the student enrollment is only predicted to grow. As of right now, the junior high schools are growing at a fairly rapid clip from year to year, and that growth will then work though the junior highs and into the high school,” Nefzger said.

It has not yet been determined what classes the portable will hold, but Wedgbury sees the addition of more portables in the future for the high school if need be.

“I could see in the next few years needing another one. I see this portable being more permanent. I don’t think it will go away because our programming isn’t going to change and the number of students in our building is not going to go down.”

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.