School Board Approves $4.5 Million Liberty Ridge Expansion

At a cost of about $4.5 million, expanding to accommodate increasing enrollment isn’t going to be cheap, but more space is needed for students, District 833 school officials say.

At the South Washington County School Board meeting Dec. 15, the board voted to approve the project, which calls for the acquisition of “Liberty Ridge Site 2,” a building on the southwest corner of the intersection of Settlers Ridge Parkway and Eagle View Boulevard that District 833 is currently renting for use by three kindergarten classes.

Current enrollment at Liberty Ridge is 980 students. Just two years ago, 220 fewer students attended the school. That number is expected to rise to about 1,015 students in 2013-14.

The plan is to expand that site from a 10,000-square-foot structure to a 22,000-square foot building.

The district is proposing to use $450,000 in leftover funds from the 2006 property-tax levy as a down payment on the project, and will likely finance the remaining balance over the course of 15 years.

Mike Vogel, assistant to the superintendent for operations, said the tax impact on residents would be nominal. On a $250,000 house, a homeowner would see his or her property taxes rise about $3.

Board member Ron Kath said the expansion is necessary to address enrollment issues at the school.

“I would call this a unique opportunity to increase the capacity of Liberty Ridge,” he said. “So, to me, I can connect the dots for using those funds for this project.”

He added: “I want to think of it as a need versus a want. This is a need, in my mind.”

Board member Marsha Adou agreed with Kath, and said the logistics of changing school enrollment boundaries wouldn’t be an effective way to address the enrollment problems at Liberty Ridge.

She noted more buses would likely be needed to drive students to other schools, and there simply isn’t room for more buses at the district’s bus garage.

Board member Jim Gelbmann was the only one to vote against the expansion.

“I can’t justify spending $4.5 million to avoid having to move students to another building where there is additional space available (at other schools),” he said.

In response to Gelbmann’s comments, Vogel stressed having schools operate at or near capacity is not in the best interest of education, and having additional space at schools is an asset.

“We never anticipate that we would operate our buildings at 100 percent capacity,” he said. “We also anticipate that once we reach 90 percent capacity, we’re going to impede on the principal’s ability to create an effective curricular opportunity for students.”

Gelbmann acknowledged Vogel’s argument, but said the district will be faced with having to redraw enrollment boundaries in the near future, and building new schools isn’t the answer to address high enrollment numbers in some areas.

“It’s not a prudent use of money to start building schools or expanding schools based on where the neighborhoods are expanding when you have buildings that are never going to be at their capacity,” he said. “At some point in time, we’re going to have to bite the bullet and start moving students to where the buildings are.”

Construction on the expansion is expected to start in April and be finished by August.