By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board heard a report on the district's revised five-year capital improvement plan, including new sports fields for the Hays High and Middle schools.
District officials hope to have all USD 489 sports events at the high school/middle school campus by August 2025. The district has been renting Fort Hays State University's Lewis Field for varsity football.
Superintendent Ron Wilson said the district was basically able to scrub everything off of its five-year capital improvement plan thanks to the passage of a bond issue in May.
"We're starting fresh," he said. "You would think that we have everything taken care of. Not so much. We've had to lay out what we feel is the plan of things we need to address and take care of things that were not covered by the bond."
In the coming year, district officials would like to turf the football field at Hays High.
The construction of the new high school, which is set to begin this summer, will eliminate the current football practice field and competition soccer field.
During construction, both football and soccer will have to share the turfed field for practice and some sub-varsity competitions. Wilson said he anticipated the teams will have to use the field for both early morning and evening practices, so officials also hope to add lights to that field.
"We are one of the few districts that doesn't have a lighted football field, which is unbelievable," Wilson said.
Officials are also hoping to tackle phase one of HVAC upgrades at O'Loughlin Elementary School at a cost of about $1.2 million and replace the HVAC at Wilson Elementary at a cost of about $2.4 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
If the district does both the HVAC projects and lighting for the football/soccer field, the district would spend about $8.2 million for the 2022-23 fiscal year. The district has about $6.4 million available in its capital outlay fund.
If the district borrowed for the projects, it could complete the projects and maintain a healthy reserve balance in its capital outlay fund.
The debt would be repaid from the existing 8-mill capital outlay budget. The district will have some debt payments ending soon. The expenditure would not result in a tax increase.
The school board approved a resolution on its intent to issue a lease-purchase agreement for the projects. The projects will come back to the school board for final approval.
"When you build a new house, there are a lot of new things that you might want to do," Wilson said. "You might want to buy new furniture. Our costs are upfront."
During the 2023-24 fiscal year, officials would like to start finishing the football field for varsity competition by adding grandstands for both football and soccer and a press box. The estimated cost for these projects would be about $2.9 million. These would also come from the capital outlay budget and not result in a tax increase.
In the 2024-25 fiscal year, more upgrades would be made to the sports fields, including field lighting for the soccer fields; a scoreboard, video and sound for the football stadium; a soccer scoreboard; and football and soccer stand utility connections.
The plan budgets money for new classroom furniture for the elementary schools and the second phase of HVAC improvements at O'Loughlin.
In 2025-26, district officials hope to add football visitor concession, restrooms and locker rooms, and sub-varsity fields for baseball and softball. Officials also have budgeted funds for upgrades for the elementary school playgrounds.
The last year of the five-year plan calls for funds to replace the gym floor at what is now HHS as well as $75,000 to move the administrative offices to the former Wilson Elementary School.
Under the bond plan, Wilson will be closed as an elementary school, and Rockwell Administration Center will be closed and likely put up for sale.
"This is your planning document. Of course, I always say that everything is fluid on this document," Wilson said.
"Things change and come up. It might be necessary to make some adjustments, but I feel really good about what we've done to line out and provide a plan for the board in terms of projects that we feel are necessary."
All projects on the list will come back to the board for approval before they move forward.