By Bob Peryea
Correspondent
The Williams Bay School Board has begun steps to build a new elementary school in the Village.
The new school is expected to serve approximately 450 to 475 students at a time. Accordong to Vance Dalzin, the District Administrator, there is a future growth study being prepared that will provide the district with more specifics.
“The current elementary school is very old. We hired a firm to study what it would cost to update the facility. It would cost $10 million or more to update. Some parts are as old as 1916,” Dalzin said.
“Last year we started a facilities committee. In August, they recommended that it would be better to build a new school,”he said.
On Monday, the School Board, administration and maintenance staff met at Lakeland School of Walworth County in Elkhorn to see first-hand what a new facility entails.
“We wanted to see what a newer school looks like,” Dr. Vance Dalzin, Williams Bay District Administrator said. “It was interesting and informative.
“Lakeland serves special needs students, but there are a lot of neat things there. High ceilings, the way they’ve used space, they way they’ve used color,” Dalzin said.
On Friday, requests for proposals went out to about a dozen architectural firms requesting preliminary architectural work.
The proposals are due by Dec. 5.
On December 17th, the Board will meet in closed session to decide on up to six different bids from firms that they would like to see presentations from. Those presentations are scheduled for Jan. 5.
The contract for the preliminary drawings will be awarded on Jan. 14.
Dalzin said that at this time there is no firm idea of the cost of a building. “That’s what this bid is for. We would like an architect to advise whether it is better to attach a building to the High School, traffic patterns, et cetera.”
The Board is exploring options for paying for the new building. At this time, there is no plan to go to a referendum. The most recent improvements on the High School will be paid for by 2015. Dalzin said that as more information is available, the Board will be able to make better decisions regarding funding amounts and sources.
The Board also scheduled several Community Conversation Sessions to gain input from residents.
On Nov. 28, there will be a meeting for public discussion of the School District and priorities the citizen’s have.
The following meetings are also scheduled:
• Monday, Jan. 7, 12:45 p.m. at the high school, for alumni
• Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 3:30 p.m. at the high school, for district staff
• Wednesday, March 13 at 10:50 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at the high school, for students
• Wednesday, April 24 at 7 p.m. at the high school, with the Village Administration and George Williams College
In other news, David Rowland was approved to be the new seventh- and eighth-grade basketball coach. Rowland has already been coaching the Junior High School football team.
Alexandria Witt has been approved to be the Junior High School Cheer coach. Witt is a Williams Bay alumna and is attending University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.
The Volunteer Cheer/Stunt Coach will be. David Barrett, who attended the University of Oklahoma on a cheer scholarship, was also approved as volunteer cheer and stunt coach.
The next regular school board meeting will be held Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. at the High School.
