Geneva High School next up for renovations

The Geneva school board Monday did the equivalent of a warmup routine Monday, reviewing the status of projects in its 2-year-old master facilities plan.

The heavy lifting comes next Monday, when a task force and architects unveil details for the biggest component of Phase II of the plan: expanding Geneva High School.

Almost all of Phase I - in which two elementary schools were built and renovations completed at the other elementaries - is complete, according to FGM Architects Engineers and Bovis Lend-Lease, the companies designing and overseeing construction. Williamsburg Elementary opened this fall, and work on Fabyan Elementary, due to open next fall, is about 85 percent done. A major life-safety and renovation project at Harrison Street Elementary School that started in June is about 80 percent done.

"What we found is that the process is serving the district and community and students very well," said Superintendent Kent Mutchler.

Enrollments projected in that 2006 plan are pretty much on target, according to figures reported to the state on the sixth day of school this year.

School trustees Monday wanted to know if plans for Coultrap, and the district's headquarters in the former Fourth Street School, are ready. No, replied Mutchler; the earliest he expects that task force to present its findings would be at the school board meeting on Monday, Nov. 24.

What is done with Coultrap, just to the south of Geneva High School, could affect construction of an addition at the high school, as preliminary plans call for most of the expansion to be done on the south side of the building.

And what happens to Coultrap could depend on whether the district decides to move out of the Fourth Street site and into Coultrap. Coultrap was built 86 years ago as a high school.

If the district wants to put high school expansion to a referendum next spring, it has to decide by Dec. 22.

Trustee Susan Shivers asked if the budget presented in the 2006 plan for the high school included furnishings and renovations to existing facilities; it does not. In 2006, planners estimated it would cost at least $50 million to expand the high school and turn Coultrap into an administrative center.

An updated figure for the high school work will be presented next week, architect Terry Owens said.

The high school, listed as having a capacity of 2,000 students, has 1,950 enrolled this year, Principal Tom Rogers told the board.