Wayland school bond issue split into 2 proposals

Wayland school district voters will be asked to decide on two different proposals next May in a special school bond election.

The Wayland Board of Education voted unanimously Monday night to split the proposals into one for academic facilities and the other for athletic facilities.

One proposal will include:

• Closing and selling the 75-year-old Pine Street Elementary building to construct a new K-5 elementary school on school-owned land near the Transportation building behind the high school and junior high.
• Adding a sixth grade wing to the junior high to create a middle school and open up music and athletic programs to sixth-graders.
• Improving parking lots and remedying drainage issues.

The second proposal, heavy on the athletics, involves:

• Building an entirely new swimming pool and renovating the old one into a new home for the band and orchestra program, thereby opening up new room for auto shop.
• Building a new and larger tennis court to replace the two failing courts at the high school and junior high.
• Installing artificial turf at the high school football stadium and getting rid of the crest in the middle of the field.

The total cost for both proposals has been estimated at $48 million.

A Wayland High School swim team parent appeared at Monday night’s meeting to ask the board to support a new pool.

”I ask you to help us find a way to upgrade or replace the pool,” said the parent, who was identified only as Mr. Jenison. “They do not have proper starting blocks, which causes some swimmers to train at other schools.”

He added, “I think it would bring in revenue if we had a new community/school pool.”

A member of the boys’ swim team told the board a new pool would be a great asset “for both the boys’ and girls’ teams, which have achieved great things.”

Board member Nancy Thelen thanked both for their input Monday night and told them, “I hope you spread the word and help pass this bond.”

Some in the school system have expressed worry that splitting the proposals in two will doom efforts for a new pool and would rather see the school offer all of them in one package.

The school board had been deliberating on bond proposals for more than a year in the wake of information that the district’s population continues to grow, especially in Leighton Township. Superintendent Norm Taylor said he has seen a report recently that anticipates Wayland will have at least 264 more students K-12 within the next five years.

Other residents in the district have indicated they are attached to the Pine Street school, which when it was built 75 years ago served all of Wayland and was the high school until 1974.

But school officials have explained that renovating and repairing Pine Street would be almost as costly as building a new K-5 elementary.

PHOTO: The current Wayland High School pool, which first opened in 1974, is the target of the second proposal in a bond election next May.