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School facility survey: district notes $636 million in needs over 10 years; items remain preliminary
Summary
Aaron Erickson presented the state-required five‑year facility needs survey and said the state's print function limits, but the survey lists roughly $636 million in needs over 10 years (excluding some support projects), with specific notes on HVAC, chiller age, building lifespans and possible campus repurposing; the board was asked only to acknowledge receipt.
Aaron Erickson presented the Department of Public Instruction facility needs survey and summarized changes since the district’s long‑range plan. The state-mandated survey (submitted every five years) catalogs building condition and projected capital needs; Erickson said the version shown to the board and the school board was preliminary and largely informational—acknowledgement was the only action requested at this meeting.
Key items Erickson highlighted: Wintergreen Primary (a prefab metal primary building) now shows a shorter expected lifespan (~60 years) than the district’s other buildings (100+ years), and Wintergreen Intermediate (built 1984) has HVAC systems nearing the end of useful life. Ada Middle’s HVAC is scheduled for replacement this summer/fall through the public school building renovation and repair fund. The district discussed a long‑range multiphase option to move Conley to a new campus, convert the current Conley campus to a middle school and reconfigure middle schools to create new elementary capacity.
Erickson said the facility needs survey excludes some support-structure projects and therefore is approximately $75 million lower than the estimate presented in October; the total without those excluded projects was stated as roughly $636,000,000 over a ten‑year horizon. He emphasized the survey is preliminary and that many of the projects would require additional votes by the school board and in some cases by county commissioners before any construction or funding commitments.
Commissioners asked clarifying questions about building ages, why prefab buildings were used and how charter‑school enrollment midyear affects school funding. Erickson said funding follows the child only at the start of the school year (midyear moves do not shift funds until next August) and offered to provide additional budget allocation details on charter vs. district midyear enrollment impacts.
