Wahoo plans new addition for its school

Rob Brigham remembers what it was like to have a band rehearsal at Wahoo High School.

Students gathered in a sunken, open area just off the gym. He and other musicians could hear whistles and the pounding of basketballs as they tried to practice for upcoming performances.

“You were subjected to what was going on in the common, open area. It wasn’t conducive to an effective practice or production,” said the 1989 graduate.

But with plans for a new learning-performing arts center in the works, future students shouldn’t have to deal with all such commotion. The District 39 Board of Education, of which Brigham is president, is looking toward construction of a 21,000-square-foot addition to the Wahoo Middle/High School building. The center would include a stage and theater-type seating for 750 people and would allow for drama, speech and musical performances. It also would provide a place where students could gather for learning opportunities and teachers for professional development.

The one-story addition is expected to cost $4.5 million. Two-thirds of the project will be paid for via Build America Bonds and one-third from a building fund, where money has been saved in recent years, said Superintendent Ed Rastovski.

The Build America Bonds are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The district can issue these bonds, which have a low interest rate, and also receive a 35 percent rebate on the interest it pays for these bonds, Rastovski said.

Slightly more than $3 million of funds for the project will come from these bonds.

The district also will apply for zero interest on these bonds as part of the stimulus program.

The bonds then will be paid off via a levy.

In August, the Nebraska Legislature gave school boards the authority to levy up to 5.2 cents per $100 in property valuation within the district for these types of building projects. In the past, such funds could only be used for environmentally friendly projects like a more energy efficient heating and cooling system or safety projects such as a sprinkler system, Brigham said. What’s more, the levy could not exceed 10 years.

But with current guidelines, schools can now levy this amount for up to 30 years to pay back construction costs.

Rastovski said the district won’t go to the full 5.2 cents or 30 years on the bonds, because it doesn’t need to. He said the total levy won’t go up, because the special building fund levy is being lowered.

The need and desire for a theater extends back to the 1970s. Brigham said the original bond issue for the existing middle and high school included plans for a theater, but because of budget constraints, the plan for the theater had to be eliminated.

Rastovski added Wahoo is one of the few schools of its size that doesn’t have a facility like this and Saunders County is the only one of the top 20 counties its size in the state that doesn’t have a theater.

Last year, residents voted down a $6.6 million bond issue that included plans for the performance arts center, track resurfacing, new band and chorus rooms, remodeling of science rooms, a new fitness center that would have alleviated the need for a $300,000 elevator, and also elementary classrooms, Rastovski said.

But some of those projects still were completed with money in a building fund, Brigham said.

The track was resurfaced and science rooms remodeled. A fitness center was completed recently and three Wahoo Elementary School classrooms will be done in January.

Rastovski said the original estimated cost for the fitness area and three classrooms was about $1 million. Architects revised that figure to approximately $950,000. But with the recession, the school district found itself in a better building climate.

The district got 12 bids. The low bid came in at $607,000

“We had a lot of bidders who were hungry,” Rastovski said. “Furthermore, we were able to utilize roughly $175,000 in stimulus funds to help with that project.”

Given the facts that interest rates are low, construction costs are down and some of the interest is going to be paid on the bonds, the district figures that now is the time to proceed with the learning-performance arts center.

“It’s just a very prudent decision to go forward with this at this time,” Rastovski said. “It’s never going to be as low cost as it is right now.”

The new center will offer many benefits.

“Over and over, statistics have shown that academic achievement improves significantly for people involved in a fine arts program,” said David Privett, district media specialist. “It’s significant enough to make this investment worthwhile.”

District competitions for speech, band, vocal music and drama can be held here, he said.

The center will have other uses as well. It will be a place where student assemblies and faculty meetings can take place, instead of the gym which isn’t conducive to those things.

“Parents’ assemblies have to be taken off site because we don’t have a facility for that,” Privett added.

Now they will be able to take place at the center.

The goal also is to have the center be a place for distance learning and video conferencing. Teachers could communicate with other instructors in this country or around the world.

“I hope to have that equipment installed,” he said. “The goal is to have a distance learning component.”

The center also would offer advantages for the community.

For instance, a community cantata could give presentations at the center, he said.

Rastovski said drawings for the center are being made and should be done by the end of February. Bonds are being sold and bids will be released around March with construction to start in the spring.

“The need has always been there,” Rastovski said. “I appreciate the arts and we definitely need (the center) in our school and our community.”