NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson USD 308 Superintendent Dr. Dawn Johnson is looking forward to the next meeting of the facility steering committee on Monday.
"We started this about January of last year and we led it up through May," Johnson said. "We meet every month, about 50 community members and employees in the district. It's been a great group. It's just been looking at stuff. We're working with Schaefer Architecture. They have some committees in each of the buildings. They have met with those smaller committees twice to talk about what their needs are. All of the information that we're just learning about our district in the past six months and putting together ideas, Schaefer Architecture has worked on over the summer, to draw up some plans and bring those back."
It is a challenge to figure out how best to use existing facilities in a reducing enrollment environment, rather than trying to build anything new.
"What are the options, what are the possibilities, what are the hopes and dreams that we've heard from our community, from our committee, other things that we've done to survey our patrons," Johnson said. "We're focusing on hopes and dreams. Where do we want to be in the future? Now, we're going to start working on what those possibilities are, with a presentation for a master facility plan to be presented to the board in March of this coming year."
One major decision already made was that to close Lincoln Elementary and combine with McCandless Elementary. That was prompted by an inability to hire teaching staff more than by facilities concerns.
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