Dome at last: Spencer School District dedicates new facility
Spencer School District Administrator Mike Endreas had a moment on a recent evening as he walked into the new dome addition gymnasium and saw a junior varsity basketball game underway. It was then, he said at a Dec. 4 dedication event for the new addition, that he realized years of work and worry had finally paid off.
“Tears came to my eyes,” Endreas said. “Wow, this is real. What a great opportunity for our kids.”
A building process that took more than four years to complete came to an official end on Saturday, as Endreas and Board of Education members welcomed the public for an open house of the dome structure that contains a gymnasium, community fitness center, locker rooms and a wrestling area, and a classroom addition that provides space for the school’s choral music and handbell programs. In all, the construction project cost almost $6 million, with about half of that cost coming from a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Pre-Disaster Mitigation grant. The concrete dome structure will also serve as a community storm shelter and will open to the public anytime a severe weather event is at hand.
Students are now using the new classroom space and the first basketball games have been played in the new gym. The district is still waiting for shipment of new lockers and some other items, but the entire space is now usable. The community fitness center was to open to the public this week, with community members and alumni to have access after school hours with individual key fobs.
The district had initially planned to have the dome ready for use for the start of classes in September, but delays in receiving building materals and other issues caused the project completion timeline to be moved back a few months.
Endreas said Saturday that the new dome that now sets on the east side of the school complex was nothing like what the Board had envisioned when it was talking about future facility needs as long ago as April of 2017. At that time, the Board was considering a far less ambitious building plan that would have addressed music space concerns and moved the weight training area from the R.J. Tack auditorium stage. The first architectural drawing carried a potential price tag of about $1.3 million.
In early 2018, the Board surveyed Spencer school staff members to find out what they saw as major building needs. From that survey, the need for more gymnasium space emerged, and the Board stepped back to take a wider look at what it might take to the public in a building referendum question.
In the summer of 2018, the Board was planning to take a referemdum question to voters that November. However, just as it was about to decide on wording for that referendum question, Board member Jordan Buss came upon some new information regarding a possible FEMA grant program that could fund a sizeable portion of a new gymnasium construction project. Facing a deadline to get a question on the November 2018 ballot, but not having enough information yet on the potential FEMA funding, the Board decided to postpone any public vote until April of 2019.
That, Endreas said Saturday, was a bold move that is now paying off.
“That took courage from the Board to stop everything that we had planned to do and make a commitment to that (FEMA) process,” Endreas said. Over the next few months, the district found that it could apply for FEMA dollars that would fund the portion of a concrete dome structure that could be used as a community storm shelter. It applied for the funding with the village of Spencer in early 2019, but would not know if its application would be successful until that summer. Still, the Board moved ahead with the April 3, 2019 referendum and asked the community to approve a $5.98 million project. The Board told voters it would move ahead with the project even if the anticipated $2.5 million FEMA grant was not secured.
Voters approved the referendum on a 781-598 final count. Several months later, word came from Washington, D.C., that the district’s grant application was successful. The final award came in at more than $2.8 million.
With grant money in hand, the Board decided to proceed with the full dome structure and the classroom addition. It also decided to use referendum funds to remodel the high school family and consumer science room, move the elementary office location for better security, upgrade an elevator, complete restroom upgrades, and convert a vacant elementary courtyard area into useable space.
Endreas said the building project addressed multiple areas of concern. It
DEAN LESAR/STAFF PHOTO
DEAN LESAR/STAFF PHOTO surely solved the gymasium space shortage identified by staff members in the 2018 survey. Endreas noted Saturday that the girls and boys varsity basketball teams were able to host games on the same night recently, with contests going on simultaneously in the R.J. Tack gym as well as the dome gym. The referendum approval also allowed the district to upgrade classroom space that hadn’t been renovated in decades, improve school security, and allow the choral and vocal music programs to have their own spaces.
“We’ve never had a designated space for handbell or choir,” Endreas said.
In it’s discussions to take the project to a referendum, the Board talked about the need to keep Spencer’s facilities as up to date as possible to attract students through open enrollment. That, in turn, could increase the state revenue that comes into the district.
Endreas said Saturday the new dome and related school improvements are “a commitment to the community, and, more importantly, a commitment to our kids.”
STAFF PHOTOS
Spencer School District Administrator Mike Endreas holds the dedication plaque for the $6 million addition recently completed on the east side of the school complex. The concrete dome structure’s gymasium, community fitness center and other spaces are now in use.
Spencer School District residents toured the new school addition, including the gym in the new concrete dome structure (above) on Saturday. Students are now using the new choral classroom (below) in the addition.
