NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
PRETTY PRAIRIE, Kan. — Pretty Prairie USD 311 will have a bond issue on the ballot in May after one was defeated in September 2022.
"They approved their project list with our construction management company, which is DCS out of Wichita," USD 311 Superintendent Ashley Anderson said. "We met with our architect, which is Landmark out of Hutchinson. Our financial advisors this time around are Stifel out of Wichita. We had everybody in the room together to make sure that we were all on the same page."
Anderson explained that the scope of the project is a little smaller.
"The final list came through with windows and roofs at each of our main campuses, so all three buildings," Anderson said. "We also have an auditorium ceiling that needs repaired, so that made the list. The board decided to go with a middle school gym remodel, to do some additional seating. Expand like a competition gym, so that we don't have to use the one we're using now that's pretty small, with a restraining line. Our court needs some TLC, so they are going to go ahead and do a new gym remodel."
Those were the main projects that had been in the September bond, but at a smaller scale. There is also some additional classroom work.
"We added some different things this time around, took some things out," Anderson said. "We added a breezeway to connect the new middle school gym if it passes, and our current high school gym, just to keep those courts, I guess, not tracking all of the elements in with them, especially during the winter months of basketball. We did safe and secure entrances at each building and then we focused on our high school classrooms. Our ag shop just really needs an overhaul for electrical upgrades and ventilation and our high school science classroom needs ventilation, as well. They need some upgrades in there with gas lines and stuff like that. Those two classrooms made the cut. It looks like a final price tag of $7.9 million."
That is down from the $10.4 million proposal defeated in September.
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