The Atlantic School Board, members of the Facilities Planning Committee, an engineer and financial expert met at the High School Wednesday evening, to discuss a proposed $9.5-million proposal to improve certain district facilities. Superintendent Steve Barber told KJAN News the committee was able to present their proposal to the Board after a long planning process. He said they revisited what the needs assessments were back in 2016. The committee came to the Board with a different scope, Wednesday. The original proposal would have cost $23.2-million.

Barber said the latest proposal concentrates on improvements to the Middle School and redoing the softball/baseball diamond, refurbishing the Trojan Bowl, and creating a road from 11-th to 14^th to help with the congestion that occurs at Washington during student drop-off and pick-up.

Ball diamonds

Tennis courts

Trojan Bowl (click on pics to enlarge)

He said basically the scope is centered around creating safety at the Middle School Athletic Facilities, and making all of the facilities ADA compliant and accessible to everyone. Some of the proposed improvements to the Trojan Bowl include using an all-synthetic turf, a new and wider soccer field, a four-lane rubber track, visitor parking, and new bleachers with 1,500 seat capacity on the home side and 500 seat capacity on the visitor’s side. Grading, according to Barber, will be a big part of the project.

The proposal also includes lighting and sound improvements, and a new scoreboard. The baseball and softball complex improvements would include new dugouts, batting cages, six tennis courts and lights at the existing high school practice field. Barber said Piper-Jaffrey’s Travis Squires, the District’s Bond Counsel, presented to the Board Wednesday night, and said the costs are doable without a tax increase. The plan moving forward, is to meet December 12 during a regular session, and act on setting the date for a Bond Referendum as April 2^nd. A steering committee will be lead by community members. Barber said he would then be available to inform the public what the plans are. He said the goal is to be as informative and transparent as possible during the period leading up to a referendum vote, if it’s approved by the School Board next month.

Past attempts at placing a Bond Referendum before patrons of the District have fizzled out or been defeated. Barber says there’s a renewed energy to get something accomplished in the name of safety and to be more in-step with other Hawkeye 10 District schools. He said 6 out of the 10 H-10 Schools have upgraded their facilities. The Atlantic School Board is focused on safety. Right now, he said, they can’t say those fields are safe to play on, or accessible to persons with disabilities. Barber said they feel they are in a good position to get the projects underway while maintaining a reasonable tax levy.”