Columbia Public Schools seeks input on long-range facility plan

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) 

Columbia Public Schools is asking the community to help determine which facility improvements should take priority as the district prepares its long-range facilities plan.

Tuesday marked the first of three community town hall meetings designed to gather feedback before the district decides where to invest its limited funding. District officials and representatives from DLR Group, which helped conduct the district's facilities assessments, presented information about the condition of CPS buildings and the district's priorities at Lange Middle School.

“Because of the budget restrictions, we really want to take care of everything, but we can't because funding is limited so much. So what we're doing is engaging community and students to figure out how we should prioritize,” CPS Chief Operations Officer Lazell Ofield told ABC 17 News.

After the presentation, attendees were divided into three groups for roundtable discussions with district members. The groups were asked to provide feedback on what should be prioritized as CPS considers future facility investments.

The district's stated long-range facilities priorities are student safety and security, equitable facilities across the district, and an improved student learning experience.

Officials said early feedback from community and student discussions has focused on creating more equity among schools, improving building safety and providing more collaborative spaces where students can work in smaller groups.

The district's facilities condition assessment found several buildings that need significant work.

At the elementary school level, 14 buildings were rated below average. Benton and Ridgeway were rated in poor condition and identified as needing immediate attention. Both are among the district's oldest schools.

Twelve other elementary schools — Blue Ridge, Fairview, Grant, Midway Heights, Mill Creek, New Haven, Parkade, Rock Bridge, Russell Boulevard, Shepard Boulevard, Two Mile Prairie and West Boulevard — were rated in average condition but are expected to need work within the next five years.

The assessment also identified Jefferson Middle School as being in poor condition and in need of immediate attention. Oakland and West Middle Schools were rated in average condition but are expected to need work within the next five years. John Warner Middle School, the district's newest middle school, received the highest condition score.

At the high school level, three buildings were rated below average. Hickman High School was rated in poor condition and identified as needing immediate attention, while Douglass and Rock Bridge high schools are expected to need work within the next five years.

The district also identified several immediate infrastructure needs, including roofing, flooring, plumbing, electrical and HVAC projects.

Hickman has about 26,000 square feet of immediate roofing needs, followed by Fairview with 55,000 square feet, Benton with 5,500 square feet and Oakland with 27,000 square feet.

Immediate plumbing needs include replacing failing water piping at West Boulevard, Jefferson Middle and Ridgeway, along with fire protection work at Jefferson Middle.

Electrical needs include panel replacements at Benton, Jefferson Middle and West Boulevard.

Several HVAC projects were also identified, including work at Mill Creek, West Boulevard and West Middle. District officials said HVAC is a particularly important consideration because building temperatures and air quality can affect students' ability to stay engaged.

The district's priorities for deciding where to spend limited money includes student safety and security, fixing critical building systems, providing equitable facilities across the district and reducing operating and maintenance costs.

Ofield said the district has already started work on one project identified through its long-range planning process: Updating security cameras across the district.

“We are actually actively updating those security cameras that was approved earlier this year in our long-range facilities planning. And so our security team are engaged with our vendors to make sure that all of our security cameras are in place and updated,” Ofield said.

The district has also been collecting feedback from students as part of the planning process.

Officials said the information gathered from the town halls, student feedback and facilities assessments will be brought to the Columbia Board of Education in November. The board will then use that information as it develops a plan for funding future projects.

Ofield said community participation will be important as the district determines which projects should come first.

“We need to hear from you. We want to hear from you. It's our responsibility to our community to understand their expectation of us. And so we really want to be intentional about this master plan to make sure this is the right master plan for Columbia Public Schools and the City of Columbia.”

The next community town hall meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at Smithton Middle School.