BROOKINGS – The ongoing discussion of the Brookings School District's comprehensive facility plan is nearing an end, with architecture firm TSP narrowing down the options to three for the school board to consider at its July 10 meeting.

Even though each of the options highlight different priorities and in some cases the placement of some grades into different school buildings, the estimated costs among the three are quite comparable.

Each plan would cost between $50 million and $52.3 million, with 2017 construction costs in mind.

However, those numbers aren't final project costs but are described as “cost opinions” in TSP's recommendations. Also, “it is important to remember that no specific design has been done, nor have any details been determined,” they write.

Regardless of the plan, there are some points of commonality among them, points that will need to be addressed no matter the final plan.

New bus barn, CTE expansion

One of the primary tasks would be getting a new bus barn, a move that would require the district to obtain about three acres of land.

Moving the bus barn to a different location would allow the district to build a bigger one, almost doubling its size from about 11,000 square feet to 23,000 square feet. It would also free up space on its former site for the high school's Career and Technical Education building to expand.

And regardless of the plan, it is recommended to expand the CTE building from 20,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet. Space is needed there as the district continues to emphasize career-readiness programming to meet local and state workforce needs. Lake Area Technical Institute also plans to lease office space from the district in the CTE building.

Mickelson expansion

Mickelson Middle School also must be addressed, as the district knew even before officials began the facility planning process about a year ago.

Recommendations from TSP have an addition to the middle school on the front of the building, on its south side, rather than the north side. This would make the media and technology centers as the central hub of the building rather than a peripheral feature, and it would better centralize the school offices in the completed structure.

“If you just add (the addition) to the back, you're placing students and staff that much farther away from the central office if there indeed is a need for an emergency response or a crisis or something along those lines,” BSD Superintendent Klint Willert said.

And on that subject, safety concerns would be addressed in any work to be done at the school.

If the addition is built on the south end of the building, the parking lot would then be reconfigured, as would the pick-up and drop-off area, in order to improve traffic flow and traffic safety in the area.

“I think the important point is the pick up and drop off because that’s been a point of frustration for a number of years from parents and families as they’re trying to navigate that parking lot,” Willert said.

First option

In the first facility planning option, each of the grades would remain in the same building in which they are now located. Hillcrest Elementary, Medary Elementary and Camelot Intermediate each would expand by roughly 20,000 square feet.

The estimated cost is $52 million. A significant portion of the cost comes from the increase in square footage to the district facilities – it would add the most out of all three options.

Other considerations, like improving the Medary and Hillcrest gyms so that they’re on par with the Dakota Prairie gym or investing $500,000 into the Fifth Street Gym (also a feature of the third option, which is very close in overall project costs to Option No. 1).

Second option

The second option, costing an estimated $50.5 million, relocates grades so that each school building would house at least three grades. This means the elementary schools would become K-2 buildings rather than K-3, with third-graders to be placed in Camelot along with fourth and fifth grades.

This would have the benefit of helping foster a greater sense of community at Camelot, Willert said, because as is, grades are always in transition at the school: “Either students are coming in, or they're going out.”

Hillcrest and Medary wouldn’t see as big an expansion (increased to 53,000 square feet and 61,000 square feet, respectively) as in Option 1, but Camelot would require even more space. Camelot would expand to 142,000 square feet.

Third option

The third option also shifts the distribution of the grades, but on a more significant level. In this plan, Camelot and the three elementary schools would all become K-5 elementary school buildings.

The main idea behind this is to minimize the number of school building transitions.

“There is some research that the TSP folks presented that spoke to impacts on student achievement. There's a negative impact the more transitions that students have,” Willert explained.

It could have aid in implementing mass customized learning programming at schools, too.

“There have been some suggestions that a K-5 structure building-wise would be conducive to having a mass customized learning track in that building. Then, the continuum of learning covers a broader base – K-5 – than it does K-2 or K-3,” Willert said.

Placing that many grades under one roof might sound cramped, but it's not that bad considering each grade population for each of the buildings would then be decreased as they're disseminated among four elementary schools.

It is a big change from what Brookings is used to, but Willert said the district wants to ensure it’s providing the best educational opportunities for students, and that means at least looking into this as an option.

With the expansions and improvements needed to make this arrangement work, it'd be the most expensive of the three at $52.3 million.

If selected, Medary would gain less than 3,000 square feet, resulting in a 58,000-square-foot building. Camelot would be 107,000 square feet, only about 9,000 more than it already is.

As part of this option, the district could decide to replace the Hillcrest Elementary School building rather than renovate and expand it.

“That's a really big discussion because it's approximately a $11.5 project to raze and replace the Hillcrest building,” Willert said.

If renovated, Hillcrest would grow to 79,000 square feet, whereas with a newly constructed building, it’d be 66,000.

Option No. 3 is also the plan that TSP recommends the district pursue based upon feedback they've received from surveys of the visioning committee and school staff. Overall, they feel this option would most satisfy all the considerations that had to be kept in mind throughout the process.

Hard work after decision

Whenever the school board makes a decision on which plan with which to proceed, the hard work of implementing the plan begins, with new topics for consideration – funding, finding architects for the various projects and beginning drafting of those projects' plans, for example – to arise.

“We're very well aware that this is a pretty significant investment when you look at the total price tags, but at the same time, it's an investment that our community recognizes as being important,” Willert said. “Education is just an absolute cornerstone in this community, and educational facilities are an important part of that plan and model.”

Willert anticipates that as the district prepares to make this decision on the district's future, people will want a chance to be heard and give feedback. He encouraged those who want to voice an opinion on any of these plans to send an email to klint.willert@k12.sd.us.

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.