Second meeting of Ogden Community School District’s Facilities Committee

The second meeting of the community facilities committee was Monday, April 25. Their goal has been to dig deeper into issues and questions related to the Ogden Community School District’s facilities in view of the diminishing general fund budget dollars. This committee is working to find more simplified answers to a complex situation we face.

Members of the committee were offered a tour of the facilities at Howe Elementary before the meeting in that location.

Dr. Tim Hoffman emphasized that all options are still on the table - the four options discussed further were: 

• Keep all three buildings as they are at present.

• Close one building - the middle school, which would require building an addition onto the high school.

• Close one building - the elementary school, which would require building an addition onto the high school.

• Close two buildings and move forward to create a pre k-12 campus. 

No grade configurations were discussed at this time.

In response to one of the questions to consider ‘how does it make sense to close a building when we need an addition?’ 

• The answer comes down to the maintenance of square footage. For example, Howe Elementary has 43,000 sq. ft. and the proposed addition on OHS adds 22,000 sq. ft. This provides for the reduction of general fund budget money on utilities, maintenance, equipment  and staff.

A second question to consider, ‘Where does the savings come from when you need an addition?’ 

For more on the story, see the May 4, 2016 issue of The Ogden Reporter.