At the February 11, 2015 Community Forum hosted by the Bethel Board of Education, Joe Solch, Board President opened the meeting by providing an overview of the building project and an agenda for the evening.  He said, “Our goals for this building plan were to improve parking and site circulation, increase student security, expand academic space, centralize the kitchen, renovate the existing structure, and plan for future growth.  Unfortunately, we don’t have the money to do all of it.  This evening we will review the plan, reveal the new design, and talk about the construction schedule and costs.”

He added, “In addition, we had to study the impact of previous diesel gasoline spills and to address ODOT concerns with a minimal of expense.”  

Solch turned the meeting over to Mike Ruetschle, Architect, to explain the new design.  He said, “The biggest change to the original plan is that we will not be moving the current stadium.  Extensive bedrock was found, which would make it cost prohibitive to implement.”  In addition, Ruetschle revealed that when costs estimates came in for the plan, the estimate was $3.6 million over budget.  The district cannot spend more than $22.1 million, which necessitated extensive revision of the essential requirements for the building.  These priorities were determined to be increased academic space to accommodate the growing student population and safety concerns.  As a result, the building committee redesigned the plan based on these concerns.  The new plan will provide 22 additional classrooms to the current facility and allow for a student body consisting of 1600 to 1650 total students.  

Specifics for the plan include outdoor classroom space in the atriums between the current gym and the middle school and the middle school and high school classrooms.  The lockers will be moved to locker bays to allow for wider hallways.  Three bays will accommodate 456 lockers.  In addition, there will be small group areas for group work and makeup tests.  Many of the classroom walls will be glass to promote visual connectiveness and transparency.  The goal is to make the building as multipurpose as possible.

In addition, secure entries with vestibules will be created for all entries so that staff can verify who is requesting entry to the facility prior to allowing them in.  Unfortunately, bulletproof glass is too cost prohibitive at this time.

The new cafetorium will provide seating for 500 students.  Elementary students will be served a standardized lunch, while middle and high school students will enjoy a food court concept from which they can choose their lunch selections.  There will be one entrance point for the new facility with four exit points to prevent the long lines that result from the current setup.

At this point, the biggest change to the elementary facility is that the access road will be to the south of the student playground so that students do not have to cross the road to get to the playground facilities.  The plan is to reuse as much of the current equipment as possible, but $80.000 has been allocated for addition equipment.  The primary concern is to ensure that students are safe inside a gated playground.  In addition, the plan calls for a renovation of the elementary girls’ bathroom.  More stalls and new partitions are needed.

The outside grounds will be improved.  A loop road that better regulates traffic flow will be constructed around the facility.  In addition, once students arrive for their school day, gates will be in place and locked to prevent use of the loop road during school hours.  Extensive bedrock found beneath the current stadium prevents areas from being asphalted; therefore, only the loop road and parking areas will be asphalt.  The rest will remain grass covered.

In addition, the parking capacity for the stadium will be expanded to 280 spaces.  Current zoning requirements based on the stadium capacity require that 260 parking spaces be available.  Currently we only have 115, which cause safety issues with people parking along SR 201 during games.  The parking lots are designed with expandability in mind.

Eventually, the board hopes to move the stadium to the west and construct softball, baseball and practice fields to the north of the building.  They also hope to move the home side to the west side of the field so that home fans do not have to look into the setting sun.  However, any additional improvements will come from normal operating expenses as time and money permit.

Other exterior improvements include the installation of a 12-inch water line through the property.

In addition, the architectural firm took the aesthetics of the site into consideration; therefore, they have recommended that the exterior brick closely match the original building as possible.

According to the Shook Construction Manager, ground breaking for Phase I of the project will begin in April.  She reported, “In March, we will be requesting bids for the early site package, which includes an extension of parking, and grading for the new construction.  In October, we plan to start construction on the new building.  Next summer, we plan to widen the road with the final stage of building to be completed 2017.  The playground will be the last project.”

According to the plan, $750,000 has been allocated for renovations to the elementary building $200,000 set aside for the girls’ bathrooms.

According to Scott Hawthorn, Board Member, “We are going to spend money as smartly as possible.  We will be upgrading the bathrooms and air-conditioning in the old building as money allows  In addition, we will add new teachers as the student population expands/”

According to Solch, “ODOTs requirements almost railroaded the entire project.  ODOT specifies that when a road is widened it should be widened the same amount on both sides from the center of the road.  If we did that, we would have to take property from the houses across the street.  However, we have negotiated with ODOT and are 99% sure that the road will only use school property for the widening.  Road widening will be the last thing that happens.”

In addition, currently the school has four entrances, to accommodate ODOT requirements the entrances must be at least 410 feet from the Dayton-Brandt Road intersection.  The new plan calls for the consolidation into two entrances.  Staff and visitor parking will be in front of the building with student parking in the rear of the facility.

When the board opened the floor to questions from the public, the primary concern was the number of additional classrooms.  According to the current design, 22 classrooms will be added.

The community also expressed concern about the open classroom concept.  According to Virginia Potter, “Some teachers may object to the open classroom concept.  However, I believe that is a small subset of teachers.  Sure, there will be teachers who object; however, education is changing and we want teachers who are open to new ideas.”

Parents were also concerned about safety issues with open classrooms.  Potter explained that the whole concept of school safety has changed.  The schools are now conducting “ALICE drills,” which teach teachers and students how to react to an active shooter situation.  In the past, the theory was to hide the students and to keep them quiet; however, evaluation of active shooter situations has found that students are most vulnerable when they are hiding in place.  The idea now is that teachers and students should be proactive by not only leaving the facility but also throwing things at the shooter and trying to incapacitate them.  Potter told the group that the teachers would be going though ALICE training to prepare them for the situation should it ever occur.  

Several elementary parents asked about the installation of an elevator.  Hawthorn fielded the question, “We don’t have the money for an elevator at this time.  We do have .5 million a year for permanent improvement in the regular budget.  We will be using the bulk of the money to make improvements in the old building.”

Other parents were concerned about open enrollment.  The district is still allowing open enrollment; however, the policy reflects the number of students enrolled in each class.  If a class is overloaded for a the grade even though the family may have other students enrolled in other grades the student will not be allowed to enroll

In summary, Hawthorne said, “We have two to three years of tough times.  If the levy doesn’t pass, we will cut everything that is nonessential.  Our first priority is to pass the levy.  If not, we will have to set priorities and have difficult conversations.”

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