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Board takes aim at high school costs
By Jim Cornelius

The new Sisters High School will have a larger commons area and a smaller auditorium after decisions made by the Sisters School Board on Friday, March 8.

The board, acting on input from school staff, added 10 feet to the commons area where students will eat lunch and gather for other activities. Staff members and Principal Boyd Keyser argued that the commons space is heavily used and more space and improved traffic flow will be critical as the school grows.

"That's the kid's space and the more the better," said Suzanne Lind, a secretary at the school.

The extra 10 feet will be gained by straightening a wall shared with the auditorium. Straightening that wall and giving each seat more space will reduce the seating capacity in the auditorium from a planned 920 to between 780 and 820 seats.

The original design drawings raised concerns that the seating in the back portion of the auditorium was too tight.

Board member Glen Lasken, who had advocated a larger auditorium, emphasized the importance of making the facility comfortable --23if that means fewer seats.

"I don't want a 'first class' section and a 'coach section'," Lasken said. "I want people to be as comfortable in back as they are in front; that's very important to me."

Music teacher Jody Henderson said that he was very happy with the outcome of meetings with architects on design of the auditorium.

Henderson pushed for "live" sound that will allow performers without sound reinforcement to be heard clearly in every seat of the auditorium.

"I just felt that there shouldn't be too much dampening," Henderson said. "It's going to sound great. I think it's going to be an awesome room acoustically."

The board voted 4-0 to accept a revised auditorium design. Bill Reed recused himself because he owns property next to the school site.

The 4-0 vote reflected a change from earlier contentious discussions of auditorium size and other issues.

Board Chair Heather Wester launched the meeting noting that board members should not think of the issues as win-or-lose propositions.

"This isn't our school we're building," she said. "It's for the future and for the kids."

The board still has plenty of tough decisions to make. Cost estimates on the project hover at $19,375,638 -- about $586,000 over budget.

The change in the auditorium will save the district about $16,000. The board went through a list of "value engineering" items that reduced costs by an additional $307,701.

That leaves the project about $262,299 over budget at this stage. Board member Steve Keeton, who is a building contractor, noted that cost estimates at this stage are probably high and contractor Kirby Nagelhout acknowledged that some estimates "may be a little heavy."

"As Kirby gets a better (more detailed) set of plans, those numbers should come down," Keeton said.

If the project can be brought below budget, Principal Keyser would like to see a hallway constructed between the gyms, with storage available above. Board member Bill Reed noted that school officials he spoke with at Summit High School emphasized the need to provide adequate storage.

The architect and contractor will research the cost of adding a hallway.

Architect Mike Gorman urged the board to consider upgrading from vinyl to aluminum windows at a cost of some $21,136. Board members were willing to consider doing so if the project was under budget.

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