ARC’s Sayre Gerhart presents preliminary report on LAPS Five Year Facilities Master Plan. Photo by Bonnie J. Gordon/ladailypost.comLos Alamos Public Schools is moving forward with planning for the future of its facilities.
Community members of the 20 Year Facility Committee were announced at Thursday’s School Board Work Session including Grant Stewart, Scott Crocket, Kurt Steinhaus, Wayne Kohlrust and Larry Goen.
The committee will examine all school facilities and make recommendations for rebuilding and renovations, prioritizing them for consideration by the School Board. Members of the District staff and School Board Member Jim Hall and Board Vice-president Kevin Honnell will also serve on the committee.
A preliminary report by Architectural Research Consultants (ARC) on the Five Year Facilities Master Plan they are preparing for the District was presented at the Work Session. ARC will work closely with the newly convened 20 Year Facility Committee, Sayre Gerhart of ARC said. ARC will present a draft report to the School Board in October. The Master Plan, which covers 2014-2019 is about half way to completion, Gerhart said.
All of the Los Alamos schools have been evaluated, except for Aspen, which is under construction. All of the schools score above 80 percent satisfactory on a scale established by the Public School Facilities Authority (PSFA), a state agency tasked with assisting school districts in the planning, construction, and maintenance of their facilities, according to Bill Sprick, a planner with PSFA who attended the Work Session.
However, three Los Alamos schools are among the top 100 in the state needing renovation, Sprick said. Barranca Elementary ranks 39, Pinon is 69 and Chamisa is the 70th worst on the list. This means state matching funds are available to refurbish or rebuild these campuses.
The district’s demographics have shown fairly stable population of around 18,000 in Los Alamos County, however studies by the University of New Mexico project a decrease to 17,000 by 2040 and an aging population with fewer school-age children, Gerhart said. A 10 percent loss of jobs at Los Alamos National Laboratory since 2010 has impacted Los Alamos demographics, she said.
Transfers from outside the district, which have buoyed district numbers in the past few years are predicted to drop, as the number of school-age children in the Rio Grande Valley area has also declined, Gerhart said. Currently, nearly one quarter of elementary students are from outside the district.
According to Gerhart, capacity at Los Alamos Middle School drives the district’s capacity. LAMS is at 92 percent capacity. Los Alamos High School is at 82 percent capacity. Current facilities are sufficient with use of portables at some elementary sites, Gerhart said.
“My biggest concern is Mountain Elementary. It’s bursting at the seams,” Board Secretary Matt Williams said.
Because of limited space at the Mountain site, adding portables or building on additional space is not feasible, several board members pointed out. Few out of district students attend Mountain, so moving them to other facilities is not a solution, school staffers said.
Redistricting must be among the option the board examines for dealing with overcrowding at Mountain, Board Vice President Kevin Honnell said. “If you don’t look at all the possibilities, you have your head in the sand,” he said.
Consolidation of the two White Rock schools into one campus is one option that is being examined by the Board.
“Nearly all the growth in student population is on the Hill,” board member Jim Hall said.
Hall said it would be useful to examine what enrollment would look like without out-of-district students. Because the state funds districts based on enrollment, excluding out-of-district students would mean drastic decreases in state funding, so a decision to exclude out of district students would not be an easy one.
According to Gerhart, ARC will present a plan for each school site in its final report.
“Our goal is for this report to be your tool,” Gerhart told the board. “It’s not just a box to check off because of state requirements.”
