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H-LP School Board Reviews Third Option For Possible Facilities Project

March 28, 2023 Steve Schwaller

(Lake Park)– The Harris-Lake Park School Board Monday evening reviewed a third, lower cost option for a possible facilities project. Superintendent Les Douma says it would involve a scaled back renovation of the elementary building…

“That scaled back would address the safety issue of the entrance; it would address the HVAC, it would also address the roof. But that’s about it. It had some playground things included in it. It would have new LED lighting in the ceiling because the HVAC requirements would have to all be done in the ceiling rather than in the walls or the floor and so it included those amounts. It is a $2.70 bond referendum. It would be about $10.9, just about $11 million. A $2.70 referendum would generate about $11.4 million. So that option is possible.”

That would be in addition to two other more costly options that would include a much more extensive interior renovation of the existing elementary with the other that would include an addition at the Middle School-High School making it a combined K-12 facility. The latter options, as they’ve been proposed to date, would be above the district’s bonding capacity but Douma says revisions could be made to bring them within that range.

Douma says the board now wants to hear from the public. He says they will be holding public informational meetings. One will be next week in Harris with additional sessions planned April 11th and April 13th at 10:00 am and 6:30 pm at the auditorium of the Middle School-High School…

“We’re going to try hard to get public opinion and see what they are thinking. All of that information that we gather from those will be fed to the board so that hopefully on April 17th, the board meeting, we can make a decision. We need to make that decision quite soon. It should be at that April board meeting if we hope to have a bond referendum vote on September 12th.”

Harris-Lake Park Superintendent Les Douma.

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