By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
With a new year came some changes for the USD 431 Hoisington Board of Education. The board took care of some housekeeping items to open Monday's meeting. Dean Stoskopf replaced Becky Mooney as board president, and Sara Tarlton won a 4-3 nomination to remain vice president. The board also swore in Neil Ochs, who was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Matt Beaver.
Then came the nuts and bolts of the meeting. Superintendent Patrick Crowdis updated the board on the status of a daycare facility. He said he and Roosevelt Elementary Principal Shellby Walker are running into funding issues.
"Mrs. Walker and I have not just dropped the daycare discussion," he said. "Kind of where we're at is it's a money gap thing. Even if we were to receive the full block grant of 600,000, the estimates from the architecture would be about 1.2 million for the building, so we're still 600,000 short."
Crowdis said he has talked with Clara Barton Medical Center CEO Jim Blackwell and Hoisington City Manager Jonathan Mitchell about options. Blackwell said hospital staff alone could fill approximately 25 spots in a daycare facility, which is half the spots available in the proposed center in Hoisington.
"I don't want you to think we just put it away and I'm not working on it, but it is a financial thing," Crowdis said. "We're not sure exactly where the next 2, 3, $400,000 is going to come from. I don't want you guys to think we're out there planning for $300,000 out of capital outlay to build a daycare facility that we don't know is going to run. We've not taken the time to sit down and look at the budget for it as well, to make sure it's actually going to be a viable business."
Crowdis reiterated the daycare would not be a moneymaking venture, but the facility would need to cover expenses. Board members expressed concern about paying for a building that may sit vacant if the daycare ever ceased to exist. With those concerns alleviated, the board said Crowdis should continue to seek information about the facility.