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Kallhoff presents five-year capital plan in Monday meeting (includes PDFs)

October 19, 2016October 19, 2016 Jan McDonald 5 year plan, capital plan, DCS BOE, demopois boe, demopolis board of education, demopolis high school, demopolis schools, five year plan, kyle kallhoff, USJ, Westside

DCS Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff presents a five year capital plan to the Demopolis BOE in its Monday meeting (WAW | Jan McDonald)

An ambitious, not to say pricey, capital plan for the next five years was unveiled Monday night at the Demopolis City Schools Board of Education meeting after more than two months of work.

Supt. Kyle Kallhoff has divided the plan into four priorities totaling $30,300,000.

“I am going to push hard for priorities 1-3,” said Kallhoff. “We must address our aging facilities if we want to keep families and/or attract families to Demopolis. The city is going to have to come together to make this a priority and brainstorm on how to fund these priorities.”

The most expensive and far-reaching is the first priority involving Westside and U.S. Jones elementary schools. The plan would make WES a pre-K through fifth grade campus, with the capacity for 1,300 students, and convert USJ to the career technology center for the school system. The estimated cost of the work is $18,435,000, he said.

Three new wings housing 10 classrooms each for fourth, fifth and sixth grades would be added to WES. The school would be flipped so that the main entrance would face Maria Street. Student pick-up would have a new drive with an entrance and exit on Herbert Street.

As the career tech center, USJ not only would provide class space for such curricula as finance and insurance, marketing, allied health serviced, industrial maintenance, welding and HVAC, but would provide space for an alternative school, Head Start, a virtual resource center and have room for expansion. The building would be available for evening classes for community adult education courses.

The other three priorities of the plan involve additions and renovations to Demopolis Middle and High schools, including additional classrooms, gymnasiums, parking and cafeterias.

The fourth priority would be a new gymnasium at DMS on the current baseball field and a new practice facility at the high school. Kallhoff hopes the athletic booster clubs would step in to help find the funding for the projects.

He said the plan will be presented to the Demopolis City Council in December. He hopes a joint meeting can be set up to find ways to pay for the ambitious plan.

The school system receives about $630,000 annually for capital improvements, he said. Most of that goes toward paying for the stadium, geo-thermal system and auditorium projects at the high school, leaving about $140,000 to cover other costs.

This year, when working on the capital plan, the committee took a long-term look at what will be needed in the next five, 10, or 30 years, he said.

“There are capital needs that we must take care of in the next five years,” Kallhoff told the board.

The capital plan is broken down as follows:

Priority One (2017-2018)

U.S. Jones ($2,390,000)

Convert to Career Technical Center
Include Industrial Maintenance Program
Include Welding Program
Create HVAC Program
Include Allied Health Program
Create Education and Training Program
Create Alternative School setting
Create Virtual School Resource Center
Have room to expand to meet workforce needs of the Demopolis area
Purchase school bus to transport students from Westside to the Ratliff Center Daily
Purchase school bus to transport students from DHS to the Career Center Daily

Westside ($16,045,000)

Create Pre K-5^th grade campus (1,300 student capacity)
Update original building (floors, walls, doors, cabinetry, and paint)
Convert old cafeteria into extended day center and indoor playground
Convert old gym to two severe special needs classrooms with common physical and occupational therapy areas
Convert old library to AMSTI/STEM lab
Flip campus to face Maria Avenue
Include carpool lanes, parking, and bus/van pick-up areas to stack traffic on campus
Build three new 10 classroom wings
Build new administrative/elective building (media center, art room and patio, music room, a second AMSTI/STEM lab and offices)
Build new cafeteria
Build new multipurpose building with stage

Priority Two (2017-2018)

Demopolis Middle School ($3,425,000)

Renovate Interior of existing building (floors, walls, doors, cabinetry, and paint)
Create dining addition to current cafeteria
Build parking lot and carpool lanes on east side of campus

Demopolis High School ($515,000)

Create four lane entrance (two lanes from Hwy. 80 to field house and two lanes from the tennis courts to Hwy. 80)
Update all restrooms
Update all hallway floors
Update all carpeted areas

Priority Three (2018-2019)

Demopolis Middle School ($1,825,000)

Build new wing (STEM/robotics, art, broadcasting, severe special needs, two classrooms)
Update entrance and office space
Remove cut through and replace with common area/courtyard
Exterior enhancements

Demopolis High School ($1,500,000)