District 303 board OKs facilities study

The St. Charles school board agreed Monday to spend up to $165,000 on a long-range facilities study that could lay the groundwork for a future construction referendum.

Under the deal, Minneapolis-based architects Armstrong, Torseth, Skold and Rydeen Inc. will evaluate District 303 buildings for needed improvements, renovations and additions, then report its findings during a community forum in the late spring or early summer.

"What that will lead to really is up to the community," Superintendent Don Schlomann said. "There may be nothing else."

The contract locks in rates the firm would charge for designing any major building projects the school district might propose as part of a tax-hike referendum or any other plan, facilities director Richard Marzec said.

The same firm has done work for the Geneva school district and several others across the suburbs, he said.

"This sets up a framework for the future," Marzec said, adding that he is "very comfortable" with the rates.

Some board members expressed reservations about the initial study's cost, which could be as much as $65,000 more than the district originally budgeted. But Schlomann said unspecified cuts to the district's community relations department would offset the additional expense.

"I feel confident we're not going to impact our fund balance or anything like that," he told the board.

The district's last referendum request to issue $86 million in bonds failed to gain voter approval in 2006, despite well-publicized crowding issues, particularly at the middle school level.

The administration since has launched a series of monthly "community engagement" meetings, known as Summit 303, to determine the direction residents want the district to go, financially and otherwise. Whatever the result of the upcoming study, Schlomann said, the next step will be based on Summit 303 participants' recommendations to the school board.

"That's a discussion (the board) and the community will need to have," he said.