BELLVILLE — Clear Fork school board members and administrators are looking for community input regarding their Hines Avenue building.
The board will meet on April 20 to unveil current designs for the new Bellville Elementary School building. It’s also expected to decide the fate of the “lower building,” as the Hines Avenue structure is commonly known.
The Hines Avenue building currently houses the cafeteria, kindergarten and preschool classrooms for Bellville, and the Clear Fork administrative offices. First through fifth grade students meet in the older building on top of the hill and walk down to the Hines building for lunch.
Once the new elementary building is completed, the Hines Avenue building will no longer be needed for classroom or cafeteria space. Except for administrative offices, the building will be empty.
During a special called board meeting on April 4, Director of Physical Facilities Kevin Carr said the building’s heating system has a 1994 boiler with “1950’s era steam lines” running in crawl space under the structure. The system may need updating within the next two years.
A replacement boiler would cost $396,000 and likely still be inefficient due to the aging steam lines, Carr said. A second option would be a roof mounted heating system at a cost of $646,500.
Carr also noted the roof would need to be replaced at an additional $45,000. The district is questioning the feasibility of spending nearly $800,000 for administrative offices that only use 2,160 of the building’s 17,500 square feet.
Adding space for district administrative offices to the new elementary building would cost $500,000, according to a Clear Fork Schools press release.
Another option, presented by Carr, would move the district’s offices to another building located behind the classrooms at the top of the hill. Referred to as the “annex,” it currently houses the district maintenance shops on the first floor and music and technology classrooms for Bellville. The second floor has roughly the same space as the current district offices.
Clear Fork officials say the district offices could be relocated to the annex building with “little to no renovation” to the second floor. They could keep the maintenance shop in the lower floor instead of having to relocate it.
Officials say it would cost “$45,000 for a roof, air conditioning and cosmetic updates to look similar to the new Bellville Elementary,” which will be located across a parking lot.
Superintendent Janice Wyckoff said she believes it “does not financially make sense to keep Hines.”
Officials say they could “save the district several hundred thousand dollars in expenditures within a five year period in maintenance cost.”
Jim Klenk, though, told fellow board members he believes community input should be solicited before voting to have the “lower building” on Hines Avenue demolished. The board is expected to decide the matter during its April 20 meeting.
Wyckoff said she has not heard from the public on this issue and is hoping to get the word out about the project. She said that what she has heard from staff has affirmed the plan to demolish Hines and move the board offices to the annex.
Board President Jim DeSanto said the annex building could also serve as “overflow” classroom space if the need ever arose. It would be closer to the new building than the Hines Avenue structure, he noted. Board offices could be moved in the event the space were needed for classrooms.
