Rich Civic Times
GARDEN CITY, Utah.
October 15, 2018. The proposal
for an $8 million school bond drew over thirty people to a public hearing in
Garden City. The meeting lasted two hours as the participants had many
questions.
There are two building improvements proposed. One is a breezeway connecting two buildings
at the Randolph School and adding additional space for the theater.
“One of the things we wanted was a single entrance for
security purposes,” said Dale Lamborn, Superintendent of Rich County School
District. The breezeway addition can be used as back stage storage for the
existing theater and give direct access to the music room instead of going
outside to get to the music room which provides for more security and is energy
efficient in the winter.
Rich High Principal Rick Larson said that the security
breezeway is needed. Currently the doors
are open for twelve minutes per hour which means that it is not secure. Secondly, the wind blows in Randolph making
the buildings cold and the outdoor area gets icy. They have to put on ice melt and it is
tracked into classrooms. And the school
will finally will have ADA access. The
kids in the plays have to be outside in the dark. Props get discarded because of no storage. There will be stage storage in the proposed
breezeway.
The larger addition is planned on the west side of the Rich
Middle School. There will be a gym with
490 seats along the side and a stage for performances. The gym will have nice
dressing rooms that will be accessible for both basketball and football. This year for the first volleyball and
football games the visiting teams changed in the shop and band rooms and the
next team had to go to the special ed space on the stage. It would be nice to have multiple locker
rooms for visiting teams. There are not
lot of home games here because the other teams don’t want to come because they
have to commit 5 to 6 hours waiting to play since there is only one gym. The
gym floor can be used for seating for theater and music performances. The new music room will be adjacent to the
stage.
They will build a good science room so that students can do
experiments. The science room is very
important. The last time an experiment
was done the fire alarm went off because of improper ventilation.
Another need is
additional special needs classrooms, now both high school and elementary
special need students share the same facility.
Small group instruction is being done in the hallway. With the addition the middle school special
needs can be moved into the old music room.
Principal Kip Motta, Rich Middle School, said that the
special needs classes are being held on the stage in lunchroom which is not
ADA. These students need to have a
focused area; now they are distracted by other students going in and out of the
lunchroom.
Room for music and fine arts is critical, at the present
time middle school students are taken by bus from Laketown to Randolph for
those classes which takes up time and money.
It will affect the elementary
school too, because the children can practice their programs on the new stage. It also allows the gym to be used for recess
in bad weather.
A participant asked if there has been a study of student
growth and is the district planning for more growth not just present
needs. Motta said that these plans will
suffice with our projected growth. This will
last us for twenty or thirty years.
Duane Gifford, citizen, said that the elementary students
have PE every day. Middle school has staggered PE because of a lack of
personnel. “Sixty to seventy percent of
our kids are in team sports. It is tough
for middle school and high school to share.”
Joey Stocking asked if the gym and stage could be used for community
events. The existing gym is booked every
night now for school events, but there should be time for community use.
Cindy Caldwell noted that there needs to be a common
gathering space for the students, and the architect said that it could be
incorporated.
Scott Tollentino, Board Member, projected growth was done by
consultants from Envision Utah, Bryce Huefner, Board Member, researched
projected growth, so there was a lot of thought into how big and how expansive
we need to be.
Monty Weston, Board Member, said that the storage areas
could be used as classrooms if there is more growth than we expect. “If we have to bring in modulars for
classrooms that is not secure, but if we use the storage areas for classrooms later
the modular would be good for storage.”
The Board hopes to be bidding this next spring. There is a comfortable budget and doing both
buildings at the same time might save some costs.
Jennie Johnson, Business Administrator, said that the average
primary home is assessed at $156,000.
The annual tax impact will be $35.77 a year. A $300,000 home is $68.66. For a secondary home or business, a $200,000
home will be taxed $82.23.
Over 70% of this bond is paid for by the secondary home
owners. The debt service for the district will be over $660,000 a year for 20
years. This minimizes the tax
impact. If more people move in then per-capita taxes will go down.
The tax
exempt bonds will sell on the open market. The sale of bond timing is good this year.
“After we pass the bond, we can go after grants and use the
money from the bond as a match. Then
perhaps we could pay it down. We are one
of the lowest taxed districts in the state,” said Lamborn.
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