EXPANDING SCHOOL CAPACITY WITHOUT ASKING FOR NEW BONDS

In 2005, the voters in Joint School District No. 2 passed a $139 million bond to build new school facilities, the largest school bond in district or state history.  Over the last three years, the proceeds from that bond have been used to construct three elementary schools, a K-8 math and science magnet school, an alternative middle school, a regular middle school, and a new high school – Rocky Mountain High – which will open for fall of 2008.  In addition, an 85,000 square foot professional-technical center was built at Meridian High School, and the district also purchased new school sites for future construction needs.  The bond authorization was greatly needed – and greatly appreciated by the staff and students of Joint School District No. 2.

One additional school will open this fall, Siena K-8, which will serve about 750 students.  What is unique about Siena is not just that it is a K-8 school.  What is really unique about Siena is that it is an “extra” school not anticipated with the passage of the 2005 bond.  Using interest earned from investing the 2005 bond revenue and savings on other bond projects, Siena is being constructed without asking the patrons to support another bond.  As a result, this coming fall, Siena will relieve overcrowding at Lake Hazel Elementary and Mary McPherson Elementary, both of which are more than 100 students over capacity.  It will also provide space to keep Lake Hazel Middle School from growing even further over capacity.

Siena represents the district’s efforts to create as much school capacity as possible without incurring additional bond debt.  Other efforts include the development of magnet schools, which have helped pull students from over-crowded schools to schools with available capacity.  Christine Donnell School of the Arts is a good example.  Before its conversion to a magnet school, the facility where it is housed served students in grades K through 5; a total of 275 students attended.  By turning it into an art-based magnet school, enrollment was increased to 460 students in grades K through 8.  This conversion provided overcrowding relief to Lake Hazel Elementary, Mary McPherson Elementary, and Lake Hazel Middle School, and gave students and parents a new educational choice.

Pioneer Elementary School of the Arts and Summerwind Math and Science Magnet are two additional examples.  Before its conversion, Pioneer’s enrollment hovered just above 500 students.  Today, more than 700 students attend Pioneer, with many of the students coming from the highest growth parts of the district.  Summerwind’s program is a school-within-a-school magnet that drew about 100 students from high-growth areas to relieve over-crowding in North Meridian, while at the same time using available classrooms at Summerwind.  The science and technology magnet at Spalding, the art magnet at Eagle Elementary and the foreign language magnet being planned for McMillan Elementary are all efforts to maximize both school space as well as educational choice.

The Renaissance Professional-Technical Center and Renaissance Magnet High School are efforts to increase capacity at the high school level as economically as possible.  By purchasing the abandoned warehouse infrastructure that was the Jabil Manufacturing plant and converting it into high school space, our goal is to increase the district’s high school capacity by about 1,000 seats at a cost significantly less than the price of building a new high school.  At the same time, by selling existing property (like the former district office) and combining that with revenue from the sale of a portion of the warehouse facility to Idaho State University, the district was able to consolidate all of its administrative functions and open training space for teacher in-service at a cost well below that of building a facility that would have, of necessity, been significantly smaller.

Of course, our creative attempts to increase school capacity won’t last forever, and at some point we will need to ask our community to support another school bond to keep up with growth.  In the meantime, we will continue to think out of the box to find creative ways to increase our total school capacity, and as a consequence, students and families will continue to be offered new and exciting educational opportunities in Joint School District No. 2.