Oneida presents $5.8m school plan
HUNTSVILLE — As school projects at Burchfield and Robbins prepare to enter the bid phase (May 14), Oneida school officials gathered with county commissioners here Monday evening to present their own school expansion plan.
In a special work session between the commission and the Oneida Special School District, architect Neal Richardson unveiled plans for a $5.8 million project that would see both Oneida Elementary and Oneida High expanded, with some minor reconfigurations at the high school.
That brings the combined cost for the three school projects — all of which are being handled by Richardson and his firm, Upland Design Group — to around $18 million.
Monday’s presentation to County Commission was the culmination of years of talking and planning about an expansion at Oneida High School. Of the Oneida school officials on hand for Monday’s meeting — Director of Schools Henry Baggett and all five members of the OSSD Board of Education — only one (board member Brom Shoemaker) was present when talk of an expansion at OHS first began in an OSSD work session several years ago.
While both Oneida Elementary and the middle-high school complex are relatively new, enrollment has grown to exceed the available space. County Mayor Rick Keeton began Monday’s meeting by describing Oneida’s situation to that of the overcrowding problem at Burchfield, saying that Oneida High School is “putting classrooms in closets.”
OSSD Board Chairman Dr. Nancy Williamson added that only the school’s science instructors have a classroom they can stay in throughout the day. “We have tachers going up the hall with their material in their cart,” she said. “When you’re limited to a cart, that’s not a good situation to be teaching in, and it’s not good for the students.”
The plans presented by Richardson call for the addition of four classrooms at Oneida Elementary — located on the southwest corner of the school — to house the school’s pre-kindergarten classes, which are currently being held at the Boys & Girls Club facility in south Oneida. The cost for that expansion would be just short of $1.2 million.
At Oneida High School, a new wing would be added to the east side of the campus, consisting of two stories. The top floor would consist of four science lab classrooms, a work room and restrooms, while the bottom floor would include a multi-purpose gymnasium, a fitness room, and a wellness classroom, in addition to storage closets and restrooms.The total cost of the expansion would be $4.2 million.
In the existing portion of the school, a wall in the dining room of the cafeteria would be removed to enlarge dining space ($188,600), and heating and air would be added to the gymnasium ($224,300).
“We’re putting Band-aids on our problems right now,” Baggett said. “This is what we see as the solution to our problem.
“You have to realize, Oneida isn’t just Oneida; it’s all of Scott County,” he added. “Anybody in the county can come to school at Oneida, and a lot of them do.”
Richardson said the project would require approximately three months for preparation of documents, followed by a minimum of 12 months for construction. A best-case scenario would not allow the school to be occupied by the start of the 2010-2011 school year, he said. However, completion in time for occupancy by January 2011, when students return from Christmas break, is a reasonable timeline.
In addition to Mayor Keeton, 10 of the county’s 14 commissioners were on hand for the session. Sixth District Commissioner Ron Blevins raised the question of funding, saying, “We need to find out where the funding is coming from and if it’s out there before we approve this project.”
Keeton indicated that the county could move forward with funding by obtaining a line of credit, and drawing from that as construction progresses.
“There has been some talk in the past about the county not supporting Oneida Schools,” commissioner Paul Strunk said. “I think we need to look at it from the standpoint of we’re all Scott Countians, and the Oneida students live in Scott County, too. That’s the bottom line.”
Commissioners Mike Slaven (7th District) and Alan Reed (4th District) indicated that they were in full support of the Oneida plan.
“A lot of students are coming from the county (to Oneida),” Slaven said. “If you don’t educate them, the county will have to. So we’ll wind up paying for that, too.”
The full commission could take up consideration of the Oneida project as soon as Monday, when it meets in regular session at the County Office Building in Huntsville.