Crunch time for potential new Blair Oaks high school

Blair Oaks High School
Blair Oaks High School

Crunch time is approaching for the Blair Oaks R-2 school district as its Board of Education tries to narrow down what can be afforded in the first phase of a potential new high school.

Members of The Architects Alliance gave a presentation Tuesday night at the board's meeting. Superintendent Jim Jones said no new information was given, per se, and the board made no decisions, but it was about "really crunching down some decision making."

The board will have to narrow down in the coming weeks what's affordable in terms of layout and number of classrooms for the new building.

Voters may see the question of a new high school on the April 2019 ballot.

The Architects Alliance's Principal Architect Cary Gampher showed different configurations of master floor plans of a new high school on Tuesday, some of which were one story or two, or had more or less classrooms with windows to let in natural light.

There are trade-offs to each layout. Gampher said a taller building has a smaller footprint, but also means getting less classroom space per dollar because of expenses on stairwells and elevators.

"What we got to see was what 2025 looked like," but that has to be trimmed back to what's feasible for an opening of the first phase in the 2020-21 school year, Jones said.

The board agreed to schedule a work session next week to continue the discussion and also talked about the 30-cent operating levy increase that will be needed to run a new high school.

Jones said he estimated utilities at the new school would cost $84,000 a year, and staffing would total $300,000-$375,000 more.

"We're going to have to be creative about the operation of a new high school," as well as building it, he said.