By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
The Raton School Board met Wednesday evening January 18, after moving the meeting from their regular Monday time slot due to the Martin Luther King Jr holiday on Monday.
Over the last six months a committee of Raton residents and school staff met to help develop a facility master plan. That master plan was presented to the board with the findings of the committee. The District Facility Master Plan is a map to outline the direction the district should take concerning repairs, maintenance, or complete replacement of the district facilities.
Demographics for Raton show an aging community but indicates a leveling off of student enrollment over the next five years. The Raton school district has lost over 500 students over the last few years. Findings of the committee noted that the current facilities are too big for the current enrollment and right sizing could save the district monies in utilities costs and other expenses. With a current enrollment of 850 students this calculates out to a 40% excess in seating space at both the Intermediate and High School.
Josh Chisum with Capital AE assessed all the district facilities to determine the condition of the buildings and what repairs need to be made to bring them up to date and to keep the doors open. Two of the schools were built in the 1930s when schools were built with a different type of education and use in mind and will need major repairs.
Longfellow School is ranked #6 on the state facilities list for replacement with both the Intermediate School and High School falling lower on the list but still in the replacement range.
Chisum noted that as of July 2022 he had identified over $27 million in repairs that needed to be done with some of the repairs the kind of things that are needed to keep the doors open. Another $3 million is needed for the other facilities like the football field and gyms.
Currently the maximum bonding capacity for the district is $9.6 million. The district has $2.2 million outstanding with $7.29 million bond capacity available. The district can request a waiver for funding as long as the district is at maximum bonding capacity. In order to do that the district will have to have a bond election asking voters to approve a $7.2 million dollar bond. With that in place the district can ask the state for the waiver. Once approved the state will fund the remaining estimated $70 million to build a PreK-12 school campus.
Other options are to spend $40 million to build a new PreK-6 school or spend an estimated $34.8 for renovations at Longfellow School and add an addition to accommodate PreK-6 at that facility.
Based on several factors and the costs involved to fund the other options the final recommendation from the committee is to build a new PreK-12 School campus. That campus could include a couple gyms, one for the elementary and another for the high school. It will have separate buildings for elementary and high school students but can utilize a common cafeteria and kitchen to reduce the costs of food transportation to the other schools.
Board President Jason Phillips noted that “the town has to quit looking backwards” we need to move forward if we want this community to prosper and grow. Chisum noted in his comments that “I have seen new schools change a community.” He added the stars have pretty well aligned for Raton in this situation. The board approved to move forward with a bond election 4-0 as board member Beaver Segotta was unable to attend due to work obligations.
Superintendent Kristie Medina is working with DOH to provide temporary nurses for all three schools through a federal grant called ELC Re-opening of Schools Federal grant. Medina will have a MOU worked up for the board at a later meeting once all the details have been completed.
RC Baldonado with ARC Consultants was on hand to give a short report on the football field where he noted the “Football field is in rough shape.” The retaining wall needs to be replaced, bathrooms need repaired and made ADA compliant and there is not a lot of parking. He estimates the retaining wall repair would be about $350k to $400k. He estimated $850k to $900k for track replacement and the bleachers need to be updated for ADA Seating compliance. To do a complete football field reconstruction would run about $2.5 to $3.5 million. A new turf field would run about $900k with a grass field being about $350k. After the ten-year life of a turf field the replacement skin would cost about $200k.
Inbank is changing the school’s investment fund from 3.5% rate to a variable rate fund at 2.5% this account will remain a Zero risk account.
Approved the expenditure for new library tables. The old table could be recycled elsewhere in the school system.
In the discussion about new gym seats there is a question about memorial plates on the seats that community members have purchased. Kerry Medina indicated that plaques will be included but it isn’t sure just how they will be attached. 91 seats have been sold so far.
The discussion then went on to replacing the bleachers on the north side of Tiger Gym. The main reason cited for replacement of the bleachers is safety since they need handrails and some repairs. The board then voted to approve the chair seats for the gym but were unable to reach a consensus on replacing the bleachers.
Summit Fire will provide fire alarms for each school with a cost over $365k for each school.
The district is again requesting sealed bids for the Lark’s building which appraised for $90,000. There were no bids received when the district asked for bids in 2021.
Board Member Ted Kamp requested a change to the coach’s salary schedule so that they could pay an assistant coach who had originally volunteered but has now requested a stipend.
Teacher Union Representative Sue Holland noted that the conversation about coaches pay could be a violation of the union agreement as it is part of the collective bargaining for staff. Holland asked that the board table the item on the agenda and take this up during collective bargaining later this year.
The district cannot pay a board member who is a coach so why can’t the district allocate his pay as coach to a volunteer wondered Phillips? Union President Sue Holland says the district can’t because it wasn’t negotiated in the salary schedule when the school and union negotiated the pay schedule. According to the pay schedule the district can only pay a head coach and an assistant coach for basketball. A third person cannot be paid and has to volunteer their time without pay. Phillips asked that if the number of students going out for a sport goes beyond a certain number, then why can’t there be a third assistant that is paid? Superintendent Kristi Medina felt this was more a question of reallocating funds and is not sure if or how it can be done. The agenda item was tabled until these and other questions can be answered.
The board then went into executive session to discuss personnel matters specifically the superintendent.
