W-MU ready to get ball rolling on building projects

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

WINFIELD ? The Winfield-Mt. Union School Board is ready to get the ball rolling on a district building project, but it seems the ball needs to be moving at a very quick pace.

Superintendent Jeff Maeder and the school board met earlier this week to discuss a proposal for community engagement planning services from BLDD Architects, of Davenport.

?I felt this meeting would be a good time to get together to go over what we have learned last week with BLDD Architects,? said Superintendent Jeff Maeder.

The facility committee had met the previous week with the architectural firm to discuss the best way to present the project to the community and get them on board; especially since a bond referendum will likely be on the horizon for voters.

The timeline, Maeder said, would be a tight one. ?Our goal would be, if we were to go this referendum route, which we think we need to in order to do what we want to do, we?re looking at (voting for the referendum on) Feb. 7, 2017.?

According to state law, the district would have to give a 46-day notice to the county commissioner that the school is planning to have an election on that day.

Before the vote, BLDD advises having a series of community meetings in order to better inform the voters of what the referendum and subsequent tax dollars would go to.

?When you back that up, it means you have to have the community (meetings) and all of the community input in by Dec. 23,? said Maeder. ?It does provide some urgency in getting going. The effort, as far as the community engagement work, is going to be pretty concentrated into about eight to 10 weeks. That is a little bit on the short side of things, but it was indicated to us they believe we could do it.?

Board President Dan Schurr said he agreed that the timeline was tight, but he felt as long as the board was proactive it was doable. He did advise that if it looked as if they couldn?t get the community involvement numbers they were looking for, due to harvest time, the vote could happen in April.

One of the main topics of focus for the board during the meeting was finding community members who would serve on a facility committee and talk up the need of facility improvements. A majority of the meeting was spent tossing around names. The board said they were looking for four to six individuals to be on the committee. Individuals mentioned ranged from well-established farmers in the community, city council members, residents with young children in the district and members of the ?morning coffee club.?

Names of parents who open enroll their children into the district were also brought up. Carmen Benson, board secretary and business manager, said she would check with BLDD to see if they recommended inviting open enroll parents to be a part of the committee. She did say, however, that parents of open enrolled children are often the district?s ?biggest cheerleaders.?

An official list of names had not been released.

The community meetings won?t just be about informing district residents about the upcoming referendum vote, but also getting their input on which projects the district should focus on.

In previous meetings discussing the prospective building projects, the board has had several projects in mind ? including building an addition in order to get rid of the portable classrooms. ?They recently had their 30th anniversary,? Benson said of the classrooms that were only supposed to be temporary. Other items on the project list were a new HVAC system and improvements to the cafeteria area.

Maeder said he hopes community members can help the board focus on projects they view as the most necessary and ones they?d be more likely to pass a bond referendum for.