BROKEN BOW – Broken Bow community members, administration, and school board members convened for the second time in as many weeks on Thursday for lunch to once again chew over options for just how to move forward with school renovation plans.
Though the time and place of the forum had changed, the needs of the school, unsurprisingly, hadn’t. Broken Bow administration has identified 6 primary areas to be improved: the school’s science labs, fine arts spaces, CTE workshops, athletic facilities, safety infrastructure, and the respiratory system of it all: the pesky HVAC patchwork.
For the 30-plus present at Adams Land & Cattle’s headquarters that afternoon, the question was not if the school renovations were a priority, but rather which ones to prioritize. The fact is that each of the potential renovation projects was chosen for a very specific reason: the 6 targets, diplomatically put, are pieces of living history.
In addition to ventilation and general safety concerns (at least one of the building’s gyms lacks air conditioning, not to mention none of its 4 major entrances are connected to office spaces), the school, in all likelihood, will start to creak under the weight of more students, according to trends presented by forum moderator Stuart Fox.
“If you look at our enrollment history, back in 2007 and 2008, we had 815 students, pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Currently, we’re at 903, and our projection for next year is 915. So growth of about 100 kids.”
The district projects the incoming kindergarten class to be about 75 students, the largest since 2007, and to make matters more harrowing, COVID baby boom enrollment is on the horizon.
Incoming students aren’t the only growing pain pinching the school: the CTE programs have seen an 18.5% student involvement increase over recent years, and FFA interest has jumped 25% over the past year. The fine arts, on the other hand, Fox says, are in shambles, almost literally.
“I think there was an incident the other night where a light actually fell from above onto the stage. Fortunately, no one was there, and no one was hurt, but some updates definitely need to happen there.”
The music and arts programs over the years have become so neglected that Broken Bow can’t accommodate its own district music competition: this past year, the school resorted to hosting the program in Grand Island, which siphoned valuable out-of-town commerce out of Broken Bow. Fox said that district music is only one such example of how an up-to-date school benefits the community.
“We do bring a lot of youth events to town, and speaking from an economic development standpoint, it’s huge when we bring those in. You talk to Runza, or Dairy Queen, or any convenience store, or anybody else, they have some of their busiest days when youth events are in town.”
The problem, of course, is who will be footing the bill. The notorious bond issue recently put forth by the school board tanked, and the cost of almost everything has only gone up since the proposal two years ago. Combining the gyms and fine arts spaces from the 2021 renovation designs only chips about $10 million off an otherwise $40-some million price tag, and efforts to square the school with the fire code and the ADA will run about $8.5 million.
The problem the board, the administration, and the community face isn’t in passing the buck, but rather holding onto it. Most agree that the school is outdated and in dire need of some form of updating, even if it is just making the building safe for current-day students, but hardly anyone’s willing to shell out the money to make it happen.
Speculation for reasons as to why the bond failed could range from an unwillingness on behalf of taxpayers to endure a higher levy to apprehensions about paying for facilities that simply won’t benefit those paying for it, either because they no longer have students enrolled in the district, won’t have students enrolled by the time renovations are complete, have students enrolled elsewhere, or will never have students enrolled.
Unfortunately for the district’s board and administration, not to mention the 900-and-change Broken Bow Indians, those speculations will remain as good as ghosts if the no-vote continues its silence. The district does have at least 3 more meetings planned, however, with the next in the early morning: 6:30 a.m. at the Tumbleweed on Monday, May 8.
