A Larger Fellows to be Built on the Same Ground

Water seeps through ground tunnels at Elementary School.

Asbestos is present in the 45-year-old school's building materials and lead paint probably is too, according to the State of the District Properties Report prepared by Gerry Peters, facilities planning and management director. The school is crowded but at least the roof is good, the document showed.

Some repairs have been made this year but this building would be completely replaced with a new school if voters approve the $55 million bond referendum on Tuesday.

The 51,000 square-foot school on McKinley Drive would ring up $8.4 million in repairs including abatements, mechanical system updates and media center, gymnasium and commons cafe area expansions, according to the district's elementary cost matrix.

It's unclear how much a new school on the same site would cost. In a May 2011 report, StruXture Architects said a new building on the GW Carver Avenue site would cost more than $12 million.

The location of the school has been a point of contention throughout the bond referendum process. Some parents are adamant about leaving Fellows where it is and others would like to see Fellows rebuilt in the Somerset subdivision. Current plans call for building a new four-section Fellows on the same site beginning in the spring of 2015.

The April 3 ballot question follows below:

“Shall the Board of Directors of the Ames Community Schools in the County of Story, State of Iowa, be authorized to contract indebtedness and issue General Obligation Bonds in an amount not to exceed $55,000,000 to provide funds to build, furnish, and equip elementary school buildings and improve the sites therefore at the District property on the current Fellows Elementary site, the current Meeker Elementary site, and District property on Miller Avenue; and to reconstruct, repair, improve, remodel, furnish and equip the Mitchell and Sawyer elementary buildings and sites?”