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Proposal for rear access road to elementary school advances as safety priority; cost estimates prompt calls for planning
Summary
Facilities staff proposed building a gravel rear access road to the elementary school to provide a second emergency ingress and egress; early engineering estimates put the project near $500,000, and board members asked that the district place the item in the long-range plan before committing funds.
Don, the district facilities presenter, told the Business and Planning Subcommittee that the elementary school currently has a single entrance and exit and that a second, rear gravel access road would allow police, fire and EMS alternative entry if the front driveway is blocked.
"This is a security risk if the building was locked down situation," Don said, arguing that multiple agencies and traffic during a response could bottle up the front access. He said a prior contractor estimate, produced without a survey or engineering, put the project in the roughly $500,000 range but cautioned that final costs could rise depending on fill, engineering and approvals.
Board members raised questions about timing and priorities. One board member said the elementary building is underutilized given current enrollment and that the board should not allocate large capital sums without seeing the full long-range plan. "I'm pumping the brakes on this project until I understand the full scope of what it is that we're looking at long term," the member said.
Officials said the town owns some of the land along the proposed route and that creating a roadway would still require town-level capital approvals, engineering, and coordination with other departments. Staff noted alternatives, such as modifying a dead-end street, and explained why they believe those alternatives would not solve the bottleneck at the school entrance.
The presenters framed the road as a prioritized item on the district’s security list that has been discussed for years; they emphasized it is not ready to break ground and that further surveying and engineering are prerequisites. The subcommittee requested the district’s long-range plan and asked staff to rank this project alongside other capital priorities before making budget recommendations.
Next steps: staff will pursue a survey and engineering estimates and provide the long-range plan to the board for prioritization; no formal vote or appropriation occurred at the subcommittee meeting.
