SPECIAL FACILITIES

UPDATE

Safety, Facilities, and Special Projects

Charlotte Lord, Director

       I am working for our school district to apply for special facilities funding by August 1, 2011.  If we can attain special facilities funding, we will build a new high school to serve the needs of our students!  There are lots of challenges that we must complete to even be able to apply for this funding!

  If we are successful in this, we will be able to build a new high school that would cost between $16 and $18 million for a cost to our district of approximately $3 million.  This is the only way that our district can afford to build a new high school.

      We have had a Calstaldi Report completed that verifies that we have a serious need to build a new high school for our school district.  The Calstaldi Report is a feasibility study that our district had conducted to examine the deficiencies in our buildings to see if it is more financially feasible to repair our current buildings to bring our school up to the current SREF standards or to determine if it is less expensive to replace current facilities.  The feasibility of modernization assessment study recommends that it is cheaper to build than to repair our current high school.

      We have had the first part of the validation study completed by a team from the Department of Education to look at our FISH (Florida Inventory of School Houses) report.  The team will be back in our district in September to conduct the second part of this five year plan.  The team looks at every classroom and what it is used for in our district. 

      The state has formulas that detail how much space is allotted for each classroom and how much growth is anticipated in each district.  Dixie School District is not growing and we have adequate space to meet the needs for our students.  We, therefore, have to show safety reasons or other needs to justify building a new school. 

      To be eligible to submit this application for special facilities funding, we must have a full set of plans designed.   High school teachers and staff, as well as our Transportation Coordinator and Maintenance Supervisor have been working with our high school principal and me in this endeavor.  We have visited several schools and met with our architect and a consultant to investigate and plan what we are allowed to build if we acquire special facilities funding.

      I have also met with a committee to investigate possible locations for our new school to be built if we can attain this funding.  We are hoping to acquire some property near RRMS from the Suwannee River Water Management on which a new high school could be built.  Environmental studies are currently being conducted as well as other phases of the due diligence process that must be followed in order to build a new school. 

      Tremendous time and effort is required in completing all of the required activities that must be accomplished to even apply for this funding.  If our mission is successful, we hope to have a new school for our students for the 2014 school year!