City suggests smaller and cheaper Valley high school
Cost and enrollment central to debate
City engineers say the Juneau Assembly should consider building a roughly 900-student high school in the Mendenhall Valley at a cost already approved by voters, rather than seek more funds for a larger school.
In a presentation to the Assembly Public Works and Facilities Committee on Wednesday, city Engineering Director John Stone laid out evidence that supported building a smaller and less-expensive high school than the Juneau School Board has recommended.
"I don't see why (the smaller school) would be any less impressive than the school (design) we currently have. It will have all of the basic elements. It still has the auditorium and the big gymnasium," Stone said.
The district presented a plan last week to build a school for 1,050 students initially with the capacity to expand to hold 1,500 students. That plan would cost about $60 million, $10 million more than voters agreed to in 1999. The state would reimburse part of the cost.
But the city would have to hold a special election to reapprove the bond because of the cost difference.
"We've got 'til Dec. 31 of 2004 to submit an application (for state funding). We really should look at a scaled-down alternative, especially if we can save $10 million," Stone said.
Stone's scenario would build a high school that could accommodate 850 to 890 students initially, with the capacity to expand to hold 1,150 students. City Attorney John Corso is researching whether the decrease in the scope of the project would require a special election to reapprove the 1999 school bond.
The revision to the schematic design would take at least a month to complete, according to City Architect Catherine Fritz. Architect Paul Voelckers of the Juneau firm Minch Ritter Voelckers, which is designing the school, said the modifications could be made without seriously compromising the design.
"We would shrink the commons, media center and shed some classrooms," Voelckers said. "It isn't catastrophic, but it isn't trivial. The key point is how far you want to throw the javelin for future growth."
School Board President Chuck Cohen would not comment extensively on Stone's proposal after Wednesday's meeting, saying he needed to review it.
"Our interest is to move forward promptly to build a new school," he said. "Let's try not to be penny-wise and pound-foolish here."
Under state law, the School Board is charged with overseeing the design process for new school buildings.
Jeannie Johnson, chairwoman of the Public Works and Facilities Committee, said it will meet Jan. 8 to take public comment, and then pass a plan to the Assembly for review at the body's Jan. 13 meeting.
Central to the differences between the city staff and the school district over the high school are student enrollment projections and cost.
Using an average of the enrollment growth over the last 20 years, the school district had projected the high school population will grow about 3.5 percent a year. The school design the district forwarded to the Assembly is big enough to accommodate that increase.
The projects are paid for by a combination of city taxpayer and state money. The high school project can be reimbursed by the state at 60 percent or 70 percent, depending on whether the school plan meets with state Department of Education requirements. One of those requirements is that the design for the new school is a size that matches state enrollment projections.
The Department of Education has projected a growth rate of about 1.5 percent, so the school district's design is too large to be reimbursed at the higher level, which means local taxpayers will have to take on more of the cost, Stone said.
The Department of Education actually projected that the high school population in Juneau will remain constant with no growth, a projection that echoes the findings of demographers at the state Department of Labor. The Department of Education compromised with the district to reach the 1.5 percent growth rate, said state School Finance and Facilities Manager Eddy Jeans.
Stone's plan would build the new high school at a size in keeping with the Department of Education's enrollment projections, so the project can be reimbursed at the highest level, thus reducing the burden on taxpayers.
"Since Day One there has always been a great suspicion about what the School Board was saying regarding the number of students it was going to have," Stone said in an interview.
The difference in taxes for the taxpayer between the two projects is about $100 per year. To cover the local share of building the school the district proposes, the average taxpayer would pay about $200 more per year for 15 years in property taxes. To build the smaller school, the average property owner would pay about $100 more per year for 15 years, according to Stone.
Julia O'Malley can be reached at jomalley@juneauempire.com.