“Why did I say June?”
Lancaster Community Schools District Administrator said that he did not want to wait on moving forward with a new lease with Maple Street Kids Daycare, which is why he called a special meeting of the district’s Building and Grounds Committee together this past Monday.
Meeting less than one week from their last time, both meetings involved the daycare, with the idea of having the childcare facility remain in the Winskill Annex for the time being while they continue to work at options for a new home.
When the district committee met last week, Wagner had stated at that time the district would move to approve a new lease at their June school board meeting, which is what they typically done in the past, but with all of the discussion around the daycare in the past months, he thought it best to move forward with the lease sooner than later, and hoped to have a new, revised lease ready for the school board meeting next week.
Under the new agreement, which would go through June 2024, the school district will shift what the daycare is paying, going from their previous set monthly payment, which was currently $1,250, and shift to having the daycare pay for the heating and electrical utilities of the building.
The utility payments vary, but were more than $6,000 in the first two months of the year, with Wagner saying they were close to $5,000 for March.
“It is more than we have been paying, but it is convenient to stay here,” said Jim Muench from Maple Street Kids said at the meting last week.
The district did not have a historic amount of what the bills had been in the past because they only recently separated utilities between the Annex and the rest of Winskill Elementary.
The school district has moved nearly completely out of the building, having moved administrative and special education offices to the former Scenic Rivers Cooperative complex. Wagner said that since the building would still be open, they will utilize the gymnasium for physical education classes.
At Monday’s meeting, part of the discussion was revising some of the language in the new lease agreement, with the daycare offering up language on a catastrophic failure of the building’s heating system, which would make staying in the building impossible.
“I don’t have a lot of fears on that building for us to shut it down, other than the boilers,” Wagner said.
The boilers have been the main item of concern for the district for years. The units are original to the 98-year-old building, and were originally coal-fired before being converted to natural gas.
Those two units are cycled every day - one unit runs for 24 hours while the other is idle, then switched.
“If a boiler goes out, that would be the first ‘hey,” Wagner said, referring that if one of the units stopped working, that the building could still be habitable, but there would be no backup if the other boiler failed.
Wagner said that with the 30-day provision in the lease for either side to get out with that much notice, he was not sure if the district would have to make alternate arrangements for that period of time if the boilers failed.
Gary Whittaker from Maple Street Kids, stated that there could be language in the lease that if there was a catastrophic failure of the boilers, it would mean an end to the agreement.
Muench wondered about lesser items. Wagner stated that they would likely have a provision that the district would cover any costs up to $2,500, and for other larger expenses that could be repaired, they would come to the daycare to determine how to split the costs.
Another area the daycare and the school had discussions on was the 1983 elevator in the building. The elevator is having issues with its doors on certain floors, and due to its age, there are simply not parts to be found to make repairs.
“We are trying to get it work it best we could,” Maintenance Director Dan Yoose said of the elevator.
The concern was to only use it sparingly for deliveries only.
Maple Street Kids exploring options
During the two meetings this past week, the representatives from Maple Street Kids shared that they are still exploring what options they have on finding a future home for the daycare.
Currently, the daycare has been exploring two different buildings in the city, each at about 6,000 sq. ft. each, as well as still looking at the possibility of moving forward with the idea of building a new facility at Schacht Field.
Whittaker said that the change of plans for the Grant County Humane Society, who had planned on building a new center on the other half of the former soccer field, does not affect their potential plans, as the two groups were only looking at sharing the driveway apron.
The daycare is working on their fundraising plans, going to various foundations related to businesses in the community, as well as holding fundraisers like a movie night last week, that netted $1,000.
Longterm plan to still take Annex down
During the Wednesday meeting, members of the committee downplayed that they had any immediate plans to remove the 1925 former Middle School Building, especially no moves in the next two years.
The reason? They do not have the money in the budget to raze it.
With the budget and Fund 46 dollars coming available this summer, the district is moving forward with several building projects, the largest to convert the old bus garage in the high school parking lot into a new shop for tech ed and ag classes. That project, which is slated to be between $460-$700,000, will take up most of the maintenance and improvement funds for the upcoming year.
In addition, the district needs to replace the high school bell system, which is no longer being supported, and is the conduit for the WAVE alert system.
While no plans are made to take the building down once the daycare has left the building, it was also reiterated that the ultimate goal is to remove the building from the Winskill grounds.
John Myers spoke to the committee near the end of their meeting, wanting to see about the viability and options for the 1925 school building.
“I’m throwing a wrench in the works,” Myers said.
After going over a brief history of the future of the Grant County Humane Society, as Myers is one of the people that has been working towards creating a permanent center for the organization (which now plans to purchase a building in Platteville), Myers said he had planned on going through the 1925 Building the next day with a few people in order to see if there was any way to continue to use it for the public good.
He had gotten permission from Winskill Principal Brad Sturmer, but when the committee heard of it, they wanted to pause the idea.
“That building has no focus for kids,” Committee member Adam Arians said of the building, which is why they did not plan on spending any money to tear it down in the immediate future, as well as do not plan to spend any money to use it further. “It doesn’t help education…..we are focused on education and where it needs to be.”
Committee member Dean Noethe did not want to see any tour conducted, and felt the December 2021 Board of Electors vote settled the future of the 1925 Building - that it was coming down.
“Our school district made a promise,” Noethe said about the vote to purchase the Scenic Rivers headquarters site, and that vote was to take the 1925 building down. “If we vote this way, it better be coming down,” Noethe said people told him on that vote.
Myers said he was at that meeting, and he didn’t think the vote to buy the Scenic Rivers property expressly decided the fate of the 1925 Building.
“I think it was pretty sure it was up front at that vote,” Noethe responded. He also said that for all of the people that have spoken out in favor of trying to utilize that building, “I can find more who want us to do something else with that space,” Noethe said.
Wagner stated that he still sees that ground as a way to deal with different needs for Winskill, bringing up again the issue of parking and pickup/ drop-off at the school during the start and end of days.
“If we turn that building into whatever, we are still in that dilemma,” Wagner said.
Wagner also stated that the district is looking at expanding the main gymnasium, utilizing federal FEMA dollars, to create space that can be used as a shelter for those who are displaced from their homes due to a disaster.
The school district filed such ideas in the the county disaster plan, which is being updated this year. By having it in the plan, it will allow the district to qualify for BRIC funding for capital projects.
When Myers said that there was plenty of space on the blocks Winskill occupies, Wagner responded “I wouldn’t recommend that we take green space when we have this 100-year-old building that needs a lot of work.”
“I get your passion for the building,” Wagner continued. “As a school district and administrator you have to look at the bigger picture.”
Myers wondered about taking some sort of community vote, like a referendum on the subject. Wagner stated that when it came to acquiring the Scenic Rivers property, the district was required to hold a meeting of electors to get approval, which then had to be voted on to finalize by the school board.
As far as getting rid of a building, the district’s annual meeting has an item that authorizes the district to get rid of any equipment throughout the year, and that would cover the building, if and when it would go.
“It could be 15 years before we tear it down,” Wagner stated, reiterating no firm timeline.
