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The De Soto USD 232 Board of Education got a first glimpse at its bond wish list Monday night, with a preliminary price tag of about $72.85 million.

Board members Larry Meyer, Jim Thomas and Randy Johnson were absent from the meeting in which Hollis & Miller Architects vice president Kirk Horner presented initial plans for a seventh elementary school and expansions to De Soto and Mill Valley High Schools. The board plans to put the bond issue before voters for the Nov. 4 election.

Horner said his company worked with principals and teachers when determining what classroom space was needed at the two high schools and tried to keep similarities between the two buildings.

“Buildings don’t change, but the curriculum, technology and special education does change,” Horner said.

On a chart, Horner listed building space uses for each high school, the amount of those building spaces and the capacity for the building space.

At Mill Valley, Horner said there are 53 spaces used for students with a capacity of 1,013 students. Similarly in De Soto there are 37 spaces with a capacity of 713 students.

Twenty-three additional building spaces would be needed to bring De Soto’s enrollment capacity to 1,144 students and the same number of spaces to enlarge Mill Valley’s capacity to 1,450 students.

Horner’s proposed learning spaces include an auxiliary gym at each of the high schools and bigger weight rooms.

At Mill Valley, space would be added to the commons area and classrooms would be added on the school’s east wing and near the fine arts area. The Mill Valley expansion is proposed to cost $23.4 million.

De Soto High would get a new media center or library on the lower north side of the building. The current library space would be converted to house counseling services. Most classrooms would be added to the west side of the building, although there were some classroom additions proposed in the fine arts area. The De Soto High expansion is proposed to cost $26.5 million.

Board member Don Clark questioned if it would be better to expand De Soto High to the same capacity as Mill Valley.

“One of the first decisions I made as a board member was to expand Mill Valley, and now as a board member I am looking at expanding Mill Valley,” he said. “If we would have just done this right then, we would just be talking about De Soto today.”

District facilities director Denis Johnson said De Soto wouldn’t grow to 1,000 student capacity until 2015-16, so it would be much longer before it would reach a capacity of 1,450 students.

“You would have a lot of building that would be sitting,” he said.

Clark said he would like to see the cost of upping De Soto High’s enrollment to 1,450 students.

“I’m thinking of taking it to the public and saying look these are the last two expansions on both of these high schools and the next thing would be a third high school,” he said.

The proposed seventh elementary school would be located on land that the district owns at 55th Street and Belmont Drive in Shawnee, west of Kansas Highway 7. Horner said the plan is the same footprint as Horizon Elementary School and estimated it would cost $23 million — nearly twice as much as Horizon, which was put to bid in 2006 opened in 2007.

Horner said inflation drove the cost increase and advised the board to begin all three building projects next year instead. Starting on the less pressing De Soto High School expansion could save the district $3 million, he said.

Superintendent Sharon Zoellner asked if using the Clear Creek Elementary School design would save the district money, but Johnson said it would cost more.

Clark asked about looking at other building models.

“I want to be able to say we looked at the Shawnee Mission model,” he said.

However, Johnson said it likely wouldn’t make a difference.

“Square footage is square footage,” he said. “It’s what we are putting into our buildings versus what they are putting in their buildings.”

At its most recent regular meeting, Johnson presented information comparing De Soto’s schools with those of other districts and noted that De Soto uses materials that cost more initially but last longer.

Horner said the costs for the projects could be changed based on what the board wants.

“It’s kind of like buying a car,” he said. “All cars have four tires and a steering wheel, but do you want a pickup, do you want a sports car or do you want a minivan?”

Board member Bill Fletcher asked how much it would cost to convert the existing theater space at De Soto High into classrooms and then add the planned larger auditorium on the building’s west side.

“I can price that out for you and you can kind of look at it,” Horner said. “Our goal is to give you the information you need so you can make a decision. Maybe it falls under the category leave no stone unturned and we can come back to it and say here’s why we didn’t do it.”

The board will further discuss proposed bond projects at its next regular meeting at 6 p.m. May 19 at Mill Valley, 5900 Monticello Road, Shawnee.

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