The Geary USD 475 Board of Education has accepted the recommendation of the Way Forward Junction City High School Steering Committee to pursue a new school at a new site.
Seemingly, the work for Steering Committee members was over after delivering their charge to the Board on Monday, but committee member Jim Schmidt said it’s still ongoing.
“I think there’s some opportunities to also have some very knowledgeable and talented people from the community to be involved in [that]; that was one of the charges that we put forward to the Board of Education is that ‘hey, you guys should not shoulder all this responsibility’ because at the end of the day you’ve got some very passionate, talented, intelligent people in this community that should play a role in this going forward,” said Schmidt.
Steering Committee members have now joined forces to campaign for a new school while spreading the facts and figures associated with that possibility.
As it was proposed to the Board, committee members favored a new school at a new site not to exceed $105 million and with no increase to the mil levy.
“That number came from a general estimate, and anybody’s that’s been in the construction industry understands that you’ve got to start somewhere, you’ve got to get an idea – and typically, in the houses I’ve built myself from a GC standpoint, it’s how many square feet do you want to build and what’s the average cost per square foot – and that’s ultimately how this high school number came together,” said Schmidt.
Educating the community will be the top goal for the committee.
“As we went through [that] process you could almost see the aha moment on some of the individual’s faces, including my own when you get that piece of information you needed to push you over the edge to ‘you know the time is now, the opportunity is there’ – even during the Town Halls you could see in the audience,” said Jeff Underhill, Committee member.
The Board voted 4-2 in favor of a new school at a new site.
The issue will now be taken to a bond election which has been scheduled for May 9th. Without the voter approval on the 9th, the State will not provide the necessary 48% aid to complete the project – thus, the project would fail.