Ames School Board Hears Report for Construction at Five Schools

The words, “rat maze” and “rigid” were used to describe some buildings during a presentation by a StruXture Architect team on Monday.

The team met with school board members to present a report, “Facility Recommendations for a Long-Range Plan” that StruXture started working on before the $65 million. Much of the information in the plan was a replay for existing board members.

The main difference though is that the entire board is focused on a five-building elementary plan, said Bill Talbot, Ames school board member, after the meeting.

Board members were divided over whether to operate five or six elementary schools when planning the last bond referendum. Voters rejected the six-school referendum and elected four new board members Sept. 13.

The StruXture team recommended that the district keep its number of elementary school buildings the same, five, but just make them a little bigger.

Most of the elementary schools haven't been updated in years, said John Darveau, StruXture architect. He said there were no flexible areas.

“Spaces are rigid. … It's either classroom or hallway, those are your options,” he said.

The plan calls for operating one four-section building; three, three-section buildings; and one two-section building. Renovations would be made to and elementary schools and the rest would be replaced.

In all cases, Geoffrey Grimes of StruXture said, “Our goal here is for interactive learning and the ability to change a room in a few minutes.”

StruXture also recommended increasing the distances between close elementary schools by keeping buildings at the current , Mitchell and Sawyer elementary school sites and moving Elementary to district property on Miller Avenue and moving Elementary to the district's G.W. Carver Avenue property.

The plan estimates a new three-section building on Miller Avenue would cost $13 million and building a four-section school on G.W. Carver Avenue would cost $14.7 million. Suggested renovations to Sawyer Elementary include adding on another section and flexible spaces, which would cost about $9.9 million. Renovations to Mitchell Elementary were estimated at $8.5 million. They also suggested building a new three-section school on the Meeker Elementary site for $13.6 million.

It was the first time all board members heard StruXture's plans for all buildings and heard facilities planning and management director Gerry Peters' long-range facilities plan, which was similar to StruXture's.

StruXture recommended $62 million in repairs to , where Darveau said he felt like a rat searching for cheese.

“It's a rat maze in there. It's not well laid out for things to happen,” Darveau said.

StruXture recommended that the $62 million in renovations be conducted in four phases, starting with building a new aquatic facility. The firm also suggested moving district administrative offices to Wilson and Beardshear and selling the Crawford location for redevelopment.

Peters' recommendations were much the same except that his phased renovations to the high school would take about five years longer, so the district could maximize the value from its 2005 renovation.

The board plans to hold another work session to go over the material before Nov. 4.

Board President Dan Woodin said the pivotal question will be where should Fellows Elementary School be. StruXture's plan said building Fellows on its current site instead of G.W. Carver Avenue is a possibility.