Representatives from Tower Pinkster Architects of Grand Rapids have added a previously overlooked item in the Wayland School Board’s facility needs assessment — Pine Street Elementary.

Steve Hoekzema, speaking on behalf of three Tower Pinkster reps present for a special meeting Monday night, told the board the buildings across Pearl Street are not in the best shape and one stated, “That area is not secure (for students’ safety) at all.”

Pine Street is the district’s oldest building, more than 75 years old, and Hoekzema said, “…it’s a neat old building, but it has challenges.”

This “need” now is in addition to what board members and school officials have identified as facility projects that cannot be simply handled by the annual public improvements fund, but rather by a bond issue.

The other areas most frequently mentioned are:

• A new high school pool to replace the aging facility now more than 40 years old and its deteriorating locker rooms. The facility has broken down several times over the past several years and the Michigan High School Athletic Association has limited competition there.
• The middle school and high school tennis courts, the former which has been padlocked and forbidden for use by the public.
• The entrance of the middle school needs to be more secure, though it is the newest building in the district, having been constructed in 1997. The high school Fine Arts Center and science wing addition have been built since, but they are not entire buildings, but extensions of current facilities.
• More room for the high school band program, which is growing faster than places to handle it.
• A football stadium that has a crown in the middle of the field, causing drainage problems.

There are other areas, but Tower Pinkster said these seem to be the most pressing issues because board members have indicated the most important priorities involve health, safety and instruction.

The pool has been singled out by many as a serious problem.

“The pool is obvious, along with its locker rooms,” Hoekzema said. “It probably would cost just as much to tear it out and fix it as it would to just start all over.”

But Finance Director Bill Melching said, “The pool question is much bigger than a million dollars, but I don’t know how the community feels about it… The bigger the challenge, the higher the cost.”

Hoekzema complimented the district on how well maintained the facilities are, but just about anything will deteriorate with age.

The school district does have a substantial public improvement fund, thanks to added financial support from the Gun Lake Casino, but it isn’t large enough to support major projects such as a new pool and a large chunk of the money (nearly $300,000 annually) is tied up in repaying a 10-year loan to have the science wing addition built.

Melching also explained, “In the next four or five years, roofs and parking lots will take up all of the public improvement fund.”

Board members were told by Hoekzema that they should discuss this matter again in a regular meeting Dec. 14 and by February begin to gather public input, via community forums or conducting surveys. He also recommended the school board put the entire contents of Tower-Pinkster’s assessment booklet on the schools’ web page.

“The more information you give to the people, the more they will understand,” he explained.

The board ultimately will have to decide whether a bond issue will be presented to district residents and whether it should be in the August 2016 primary or the November general election.

Superintendent Norm Taylor said, “My recommendation is that we do a thorough job on this. It’s not a race. There is a lot of work here and a lot of priorities to be decided… It’s going to be a consensus- and community driven effort.”

PHOTO: Pine Street Elementary

The Wayland High School pool