BROOKINGS – The Brookings School Board voted unanimously to approve a plan on how facility planning should proceed in the school district, bringing an end to more than a year of discussion on the topic.

The school board had three options to choose from, though the motion they voted on Monday night was simply a yes/no vote for just one of the options, along with a list of district priorities. The main difference among the options were the grade arrangements (which grades would be placed at which school building), which would also dictate future construction and remodeling that would be required.

With the school board's approval, the district will go forward with the $52 million plan to keep the grades at the same buildings in which they are now. This plan had the greatest increase in square footage of the three plans, calling for another 20,000 square feet each at Hillcrest Elementary, Medary Elementary and Camelot Intermediate.

The board's decision was in keeping with public feedback, which pushed heavily against the option to turn to a four pre-K-5 building model, which would have turned Camelot Intermediate into the district's fourth elementary building. The district had dropped serious consideration of this option following their June meeting, leaving two choices with less drastic changes to consider.

The other option, which called for moving third graders out of the elementary buildings to Camelot Intermediate so that all district buildings would house at least three grades, was also unpopular with Camelot staff.

Also a part of the facility plan vote was the approval of a list of projects that the district would prioritize to tackle.

The board spent much of its Monday work session going over architecture firm TSP’s recommendations and the list, but there was some debate as to the suggested order of the projects, especially whether expansion and upgrades at Mickelson Middle School or at Medary and Hillcrest Elementary schools should come first.

Other items on the list included relocating the district’s bus barn to make room for career and technical education expansion; expansion at the high school, Camelot Intermediate School and the district administration office; and negotiating for properties around some Brookings schools to make room for future growth.

As Brookings School District Superintendent Klint Willert explained, “I think the big take-away is we've identified 10 bulleted items that need attention in the district, and how we rearrange those particular items is at the discretion of the board.”

The list also is not set in stone and the board could change the prioritization in the future.

Prior to the vote, school board member Steve Bayer emphasized that simply selecting which plan to follow shouldn't be considered the end of the issue, noting that with bigger buildings come bigger needs in other capacities, too, such as staffing. He therefore urged other board members, the district and the public to give serious thought to another opt-out to meet future school district needs.

Noting that “94 percent of our revenue is spoken for before we begin budget discussions” and that the school district has a $484,000 structural deficit, he said, “If we really want to move forward with counselors, social workers, an HR position, reducing class sizes and adding programs, actually turning on the lights and the heat in these new spaces we're talking about building, I think it needs to be a side-by-side discussion that there's a capital need.”

Those were comments meant to spur future discussion and wasn't something to be acted upon Monday night.

After the vote on which facility plan to pursue came a vote to give the superintendent the go-ahead to draft and issue requests for proposals for architects to work toward bringing the newly approved facility plans to fruition.

As architects are brought on come the next big steps of the process, Willert said.

“This is where everybody starts putting a pound of flesh into the conversation about what does this room need to look like, how many square feet, what sort of flexible space does the room need, what sort of furnishings and fixtures? We talk about all of the work that needs to go on.”

He added, “Also, a big part of it is working very closely with (Brookings School District Business Manager) Brian (Lueders) as we start sorting through the funding mechanisms whether it's capital outlay certificates or performance bonds or bonds or some variation of the two. This is a big conversation, this next phase.”

Ultimately, the board voted to let the superintendent draft the request, but in an amendment, took away the portion about the issuing of the request due to ongoing concerns and questions about the district's list of priorities.

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.