The Prescott School Board will review results Wednesday, Nov. 18 of the community survey conducted to learn community support of paying for facility upgrades and updates.

The Board of Education in September approved a survey to go out to district residents this month to get opinions on facility needs and to gauge “tax tolerance” for a possible referendum vote in the spring to pay for them.

Surveys were mailed to district residents in October and returned by Nov. 1. The district contracted with School Perceptions to conduct the survey.

It’s on the school board agenda to examine survey results at the November meeting, and then workshops will be scheduled with the intent of getting necessary resolutions completed in January to plan for a referendum question on the April ballot.

The survey gave background on an overall facility needs assessment that was done by Eau Claire architectural firm SDS and invited residents to see the full study on the district web site.

“Many of the education spaces in our older schools need to be updated to meet the current educational needs of our students. Today’s classrooms require flexible space to provide large group instruction, small group collaboration, increased access to technology, and space for hands-on, project-based learning opportunities to better support the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum. In addition, the elementary school lacks a dedicated cafeteria, requiring daily set-up and take-down of tables and creating scheduling challenges for physical education classes,” the text of the survey stated. “The elementary and intermediate schools have space that can be renovated for classrooms. The middle school is currently at capacity and remodeling or expanding it is limited by its structure and location. This is an opportunity to reconfigure the grade levels in the schools to better utilize available space as well as improve efficiency of staff and resources.”

The survey asked, “Given this information, would you support the District exploring a facilities referendum at this time?”

Costs were outlined as well. The total cost for Pathway 1 was put at $19.4 – $20.1 million.

The cost for Pathway 2 was projected at $17.9-$18.6 million.

The survey then asked which Pathway the resident would support, or it they support either or neither.

Costs of estimated property tax increases were then laid out on the survey. A property valued at $200,000 would see an estimated tax increase of $146 per year at the $18 million project level. Respondents are asked what sized referendum they would support: $22 million, $20 million, $18 million, $16 million, a “smaller” referendum or none at all.

The school board meeting is set for 7 p.m. in the Prescott Performing Arts Center. The full meeting agenda appears on the bottom left portion of this page.