LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Faced with a critical shortage of classroom space, this week the Konocti Unified School District Board of Trustees will hold a workshop to consider options for maximizing school facilities, including moving eighth graders to the Lower Lake High School campus beginning next year.
The board will hold the special facilities planning workshop beginning at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, in the Carol McClung Conference Center, 9430-B Lake St. in Lower Lake.
The Wednesday workshop is for discussion only, with no action to take place. Any financing and program changes the board wants to pursue would be placed on a future agenda, according to district documents.
Superintendent Donna Becnel's report to the board for the facility needs workshop explains that the board adopted the district's Facilities Master Plan Update at its June 18 meeting.
“Some of the individual projects could be completed within our current financial infrastructure, but the combination of facilities projects have large financial implication. These are large scale projects and are beyond the scope of maintenance,” Becnel said.
She said most of of the projects will require additional financing.
At the June meeting, the board and staff discussed projected facilities costs but didn't discuss funding mechanisms for the projects. “Since that time, staff reviewed our current enrollment and available facilities; discussed financing with borrowing/bonding agents; and reviewed initial concepts with management and teachers,” Becnel wrote.
Becnel said the most critical area regarding facilities is the classroom space available at the district's transitional kindergarten through eighth grade schools, noting that Burns Valley, Pomo and Lower Lake Elementary are at capacity for room utilization.
The district has in this fiscal year added 10 additional classrooms to accommodate more classes, which was done through a combination of utilizing existing space and adding another portable to Burns Valley, Becnel said.
Becnel said the former Lewis School building across from Lower Lake Elementary is being remodeled to accommodate two transitional kindergarten classes.
As a result, the district has nearly eliminated classroom space that will be needed for expanding programs such as music, art and foreign language, said Becnel.
Placing additional portable classrooms at school sites isn't an option due to a lack of available land, Becnel said. At the same time, the district's growth is anticipated to continue over the next few years.
Becnel said that the most viable option to maximize the district's space is to move the eighth grade to Lower Lake High School.
With 100 Lower Lake High students to attend the health occupations magnet high school at the Konocti Education Center, and with the current seventh graders – next year's eighth graders – numbering 220, the net increase for the Lower Lake High campus would be 120 students, according to Becnel's report.
The Wednesday workshop will include a discussion on current enrollment and facilities use; pros and cons – as well as logistics – of moving eighth graders to Lower Lake High; solar updates; other master facilities plan projects; and financing, Becnel said.
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Konocti Unified Board workshop to look at facilities needs, possible move of eighth graders to Lower Lake High
- Elizabeth Larson
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