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Editorial
Buena Vista’s voters are likely to be faced with making a momentous decision this fall concerning the city’s future. If all goes according to plan, there will be a referendum question on the Nov. 4 ballot asking voters to approve financing for a very expensive schools capital project.
Depending upon which option City Council and the School Board choose to go with, the cost of the capital project could be anywhere from $20 million to $60 million. The lower end of these cost estimates would be for renovations to existing facilities while the upper end would be for replacing the existing elementary and middle schools with one or two new schools.
The consensus of a facilities committee composed of members of City Council and the School Board appears to be in favor of replacing Parry McCluer Middle School, the oldest of the city’s four schools and the one viewed as being the least cost effective to renovate. The oldest part of this building dates to the 1920s and a later addition was built in the 1950s.
The city’s two elementary schools – Enderly Heights and Kling – are both in need of substantial improvements as well, dating, respectively, to the 1960s and 1970s. The open configuration of Enderly is seen as presenting security issues by today’s standards. All agree there are definite deficiencies to three of the city’s schools that must be addressed in the relatively near future.
A limited facilities study conducted a few years ago prompted a construction firm and architectural company to submit an unsolicited proposal under the Public/Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act to build a new 99,500-square foot school on land adjacent to Parry McCluer High School. This proposed school, estimated in 2021 dollars to cost $36 million, would have served grades K-12 so as to replace the middle school and both elementary schools. An advantage of this proposal would be a reduction in transportation costs since all students would be bused to a single campus.
A more comprehensive study, being conducted for the facilities committee by Energy Systems Group, is analyzing what costs would be over a 30-year period for various options. At its most recent meeting, the committee directed ESG to look at three basic options – building a new middle school, constructing a middle school while reevaluating the city’s elementary schools in 10 years, and building a consolidated pre-K through eighth grade school near PMHS.
Once the committee decides which option it prefers, further choices will need to be made on what to do with any existing schools that would be closed. There will be costs and opportunities to consider for what to do with these buildings and sites in the future. Much is at stake as the future of Buena Vista is pondered.
Mayor Tyson Cooper and School Board chair Teresa Ellison, along with their colleagues on City Council and the School Board, are to be commended for being proactive in planning for the future of the city schools. PMHS, the last school to be built in the city, opened 24 years ago this fall. The final payment was made on it in the last couple of years. With the city having resolved its debt over the golf course as well, now is the right time to proceed with undertaking the next big capital project, if the city is to continue to operate its own school system.
