St. Paul School Addition, View from Northeast Corner of Construction Site, May 22, 2008.

Thursday, May 22, 2008. For the historians in the crowd, we mark Tuesday, May 13, 2008, as the date that the first dirt was moved to begin construction of the new school addition. The picture below was taken at the southeast corner of the construction site looking to the northwest.

Left-to-Right: Mrs. Kim Juenemann, Supt.; Elaine VanLeeuwen, Board Member; Jeff Corn, Board Member; Mr. Mark LaTurner, HS Principal; Mrs. Chelle Kemper, Elementary Principal; Rick Giefer, Mayor; Joe Smith, Farmers National Bank / Goppert Foundation; Dan Vitt, Alumni Association President; Susan Jacquinot, Patron; David O'Bryan, Alumni Association Treasurer and Former Board Member. Not pictured - Mr. Felix Diskin, Retired St. Paul School Principal.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008. The weather was beautiful for groundbreaking today. Folks were a bit camera shy, but you'll have to trust us that about 75 people plus staff and students gathered for the ceremony. Mrs. Juenemann reminisced a bit about the formation of USD 505 Chetopa - St. Paul under the themes of, "never, never give up," and "one person can make a difference." She recounted getting a phone call in January 2005 from Susan Jacquinot asking if USD 505 Chetopa would "just listen" to the proposition of accepting St. Paul into their district. This would ultimately lead to the largest transfer of territory in state history and the formation of the first, and only, noncontiguous school district in the state.

She also noted the historical significance of St. Paul Schools, namely (1) the oldest elementary and secondary school in Kansas to be continuously operating on the same site, with the boys school first established here on May 10, 1847; (2) the site of the first elementary and secondary school for girls in Kansas, which was opened on October 10, 1847; and (3) the historical 'coincidence' that the first school was opened here on May 10 (1847) and the Kansas State Board of Education approved the formation of USD 505 Chetopa - St. Paul on May 10 (2005).

Much deserved recognition was given to Joe Smith and the Goppert Foundation. It was Joe's leadership shortly after the formation of USD 505 Chetopa - St. Paul that started the ball rolling on this project and the Goppert Foundation's contribution of $400,000 served as the impetus for the fundraising drive that continues to inch closer to $800,000. Thanks were also extended to everyone who made a private donation and to all the district patrons who supported the bond issue.

The ceremony is in the history book. Now for the good part. Let's build a school!

March 14, 2008. The site preparation bids for the St. Paul School addition will be opened on April 1. The ground breaking ceremony has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 2, at 2:30. The construction bids will be opened on April 8. We need to check the final floor plan and see if we owe you an update to the one posted below on December 2, 2007. To the best of our recollection, not much has changed from that design though.

The only thing we see in the final plan that we don't much care for is the connecting point between the new addition and the elementary building is through the hallway into the old gym. We'd much prefer to see a hallway through the little classroom in the northeast corner of the elementary leading directly into the multipurpose room. This is surely a petty concern at best when you consider how much there is to like about the new addition.

In a few short years we've gone from facing the very real prospect of losing our high school to the exciting prospect now of building the equivalent of a new high school. Once again, God has surely blessed this little community.

December 2, 2007. The floor plan for the new school addition has now been finalized. It will include five general-purpose classrooms, art room, music room, science lab, k-12 library / media center, two locker rooms, and a gymnasium with seating capacity near 1,000. This addition will total nearly 35,000 square feet. Current plans are to relocate the high school, grades 9-12, to the new addition. A copy of the approved floor plan is provided below.

July 27, 2007. The modular classroom unit directly east of the elementary school is now being relocated in preparation for the new school addition.

June 7, 2007. The following are the unofficial election results from the USD 505 Bond Issue election held on June 5th:

The Yes votes prevailed with 53 percent of the total votes. The St. Paul area carried the Yes vote with an overwhelming 91 percent voting yes. Coupled with a relatively high voter turnout in St. Paul, this support was enough to offset the poor showing in Chetopa where patrons voted No by an 83 percent margin.

The architect will be on the Chetopa and St. Paul campuses on June 7th to discuss the next phase of the project and move expeditiously toward a targeted completion date of August 2008.

Although the vote on the bond issue was obviously lopsided, we hope that all the district patrons will look back in several years and be proud of the improvements financed on both campuses with the proceeds of the bond issue. For the St. Paul campus, June 5th, 2007, is now in the history books as one of the most important dates in our generation for St. Paul Schools. The future is in our hands and it's looking brighter every day.

May 24, 2007. The architect's drawings of the proposed addition to St. Paul School are provided below. A second public forum will be held in the St. Paul School multipurpose room on Wednesday, May 30th beginning at 7:00 p.m. Please encourage everyone to vote, and vote Yes, for this beautiful and much needed addition to our school. This addition will benefit many generations of children, will be a source of pride for our community, and will generate excitement leading to even more growth in our community.

The St. Paul Schools Alumni & Friends Association fundraising campaign for this project now stands at $770,000, just $30,000 shy of our goal of $800,000. Thank you to everyone near and far who has responded to our fundraising appeal. Your generosity and support is truly overwhelming.

Proposed Addition - North View

Proposed Addition - North View Enlarged

Proposed Addition - Southeast View

Proposed Addition - Southeast View Enlarged

School Addition - Floor Plan

March 19, 2007. The most recent issue of The District Dispatch (Volume 2, Number 8) provides the most recent information about the bond election that will be decided upon by district patrons at a special election on Tuesday, June 5th. The budget is reproduced below.  The latest architectural drawings will be posted as soon as they are available to the public.

February 22, 2007. The USD 505 Board of Education held a special meeting last night in St. Paul to continue discussion of the building projects. Board member Ron Wood was not present. The board voted 6-0 to pursue a bond issue in an amount not to exceed $8.5 million. A special election will be held Tuesday, June 5th, to allow USD 505 patrons to vote on this proposal.

Two versions of a revised drawing for the St. Paul portion of the project were presented to the board. Both versions contain the following additions at St. Paul: gymnasium, locker rooms, weight room, art room, music room, media center/library, administrative office, and four classrooms. The proposed addition would be approximately 33,000 square feet at a projected cost of approximately $5.1 million.

February 14, 2007. At their regular board meeting February 12th, the USD 505 Board of Education voted to move forward with planning for a bond issue in an amount not to exceed $8.5 million. This would include buildings projects at Chetopa (media center, two storm shelter classrooms), St. Paul (gymnasium with two locker rooms and weight room, four classrooms, art and music rooms, entrance and reception area), and district-wide technology up-grades and improvements. The architect will now work within this budget to determine a proposed drawing and floor plans for the projects. The Board is currently anticipating a special election in June 2007 to vote on the bond issue.

January 12, 2007. USD 505 Chetopa - St. Paul will not have a bond issue on the ballot at the upcoming April 2007 election. At a special meeting last night, the board made two basic decisions. First, they decided they needed more time to plan the bond issue. At this point the earliest 505 patrons might be voting on a bond issue would be June 2007. Second, the board decided that the proposed plan was too expensive. They directed the building committee to review the plan and determine what the priorities would be given a maximum bond issue of $7.4 million, down from the proposed plan that called for a $12.9 million bond issue. A $7.4 million bond issue would equate to a 10 mill property tax increase for 30 years.

January 9, 2007. At last night's regular meeting of the USD 505 school board, the board heard a report from PBA Architects regarding their proposal for building projects at Chetopa and St. Paul. The floor plan for St. Paul is pictured below:

As you can see above, the red area is the existing elementary school and gym. The grey area to the north of the gym is the existing multipurpose room. The proposed addition would add a new gym capable of serving as our primary gymnasium, locker rooms, weight room, k-12 library, art room, music room, and six new classrooms. The music room would also serve as a storm center.

One of the architect's key considerations is designing the new addition to enhance the security of the St. Paul campus. The "Entry" noted above, and the additional Administrative area, would function as the gateway for all visitors to enter the building during school hours. All other doorways would be locked down to help ensure the safety of our students. We all want a school in St. Paul and not a prison, but we also can not ignore security concerns, or think that we are immune to such problems.

The proposed addition at Chetopa is pictured below:

With the recent escalation of construction costs, it should come as no surprise that everyone has sticker shock at this time. The architect's estimated total for the entire package is $12.9 million. Board member Jeff Corn checked with a different architect who is working on the Humbolt School addition, and verified that school construction costs are in the neighborhood of $150 per square foot, as estimated by PBA Architects.

Readers are encouraged to keep in mind that the state will pay 52 percent of the principal and interest payments on a bond issue in our district. In addition, bond interest rates are currently at record lows of just above 4 percent. With the $500,000 that the Alumni & Friends Association currently has pledged toward this project, these additions would cost $20 per month for the owner of a house valued at $100,000.

Is it worth $20 per month to have the most significant addition to our school since 1953? Is it worth $20 per month to have facilities that will allow us to continue to attract students and grow? When our school was closed on December 6, 2004, who among us would not have considered $20 per month a bargain to merely keep our existing school open for our children? Now, $20 per month can buy us a major expansion to our school!

The board discussed this project for about an hour last night. The concern is not whether the projects are needed at both campuses, but whether the bond issue will pass. After a lengthy discussion, the board members were polled by Board President Sandi Krider. The result was 5 board members in favor of going forward with the entire project at an April election, and 2 board members opposed due to the burden this would put on the taxpayers. Readers are reminded that this was the first opportunity for the entire board to hear the architect's proposal and no one has had the luxury of much time to reflect on this plan.

If the board wants to proceed with an April 2007 bond issue, they must have a form to the state by this Friday, January 12th. Consequently, the board will have a special meeting this Thursday, January 11th, at 7:00 p.m. in Chetopa to decide whether to have a bond issue on the ballot in April and, if so, what amount they will ask the 505 patrons to approve at that time.