The Emporia Gazette

February 12, 2012

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The Emporia board of education voted 6-1 Wednesday night in favor of a plan intended to save money on energy and also provide a new football/soccer field and track at Emporia High School.

Before a lengthy discussion about details of the plan, Superintendent John Heim announced that head-count enrollment in the district was better than had been anticipated.

"We're up 30 students, and we budgeted to be down 100, so that's a 130-student swing in headcount," Heim said. "I have to keep emphasizing that head count and weighted FTE are not the same. ... We're funded on FTE."

Weighted full-time equivalency student counts bring additional funds to the district because of its high number of at-risk students.

"I expect we're going to be up in weighted enrollment as well," Heim said. "That's really good news."

Heim emphasized that the district will not have the final FTE counts used to determine state aid until later in the year.

The energy-saving plan was developed after a detailed study of existing buildings and equipment, and changes that could be made to reduce energy use. The board has been studying the results of the study during meetings the past several months.

Changes will include high-efficiency lighting, water conservation measures, occupancy-based air controls, light sensors in classrooms and on vencing machines, new windows in many of the buildings, suspended ceilings, and new boilers, steam traps and rooftop units. The plan also included installing artificial turf on an Emporia High School football field, and enlarging it to soccer-field size to allow its use for both sports. The field would be encircled by a "broke-back" track that would be the same size as a traditional track but configured differently. Lighting, an efficient drainage system, and fencing around the football/soccer field also were included in the project.

Several of the planned already had been identified for replacement, such as the aging boilers that heat the high school; others had been recommended as being needed.

The energy plan was promoted as providing about $6.7 million worth of projects to get those savings, including the track and stadium lighting, and an actual cost to the district of around $5,343,000 because of federal income tax incentives to bondholders who purchase the debt and a lease-finance system that would allow the school district to pay less interest on the cost while at the same time earning interest on its money.

A trustee would hold title to the field and lease it back to the school district until the debt was redeemed.

Initially, it had been estimated that the district might pay 0 percent or less in interest over the 15-year term of the debt. Board members heard Wednesday night that the federal government had lowered the percentage of the tax incentive to people who purchased the bonds and some purchasers now were asking for additional interest from the participating school districts.

Greg Vahrenberg, managing director of Piper-Jaffray financial service, said that he could not give a firm percentage of interest that would be required, but estimated it could be 1 to 1.5 percent.

"It's an unusual time," Assistant Superintendent for Business Rob Scheib told the board during a presentation about the sports-field improvements. The Energy Conservation Measures are financed through federal stimulus, no-interest bonds, and subsequently free general fund budget dollars to spend on instruction, he said.

"I've been walking around the halls calling these Obama dollars, but I don't know if that's the correct term for it," Scheib said.

He told the board that the current EHS track had been decommissioned for six years because it had deteriorated to the point of being hazardous for students. The football field, he said, was being used at least 55 times a year when Kansas State University field experts recommended use be limited to 10 times per year.

Board member Glen Strickland questioned whether the young athletes would face more injuries from playing on artificial turf than on natural grass.

Scheib said that Astroturf -- a carpet-like covering over asphalt base -- had produced more injuries; however, injuries on the new resilient artificial turf are comparable to natural grass.

Scheib said that the new track and field also could be used for post-season play, meets, and use by other area schools for make-up games, in addition to Emporia Recreation Center football and track, club football and soccer tournaments and Relay for Life. It also could boost economic development.

"When you talk about economic development, it brings people to town. ... They stay in hotels, motels, they eat in restaurants," he said.

A sophisticated drainage system beneath the football/soccer field would drain into the track and flow away from the sports field, keeping it dry for play. The proposed artificial turf field also would provide a safer practice area for the high school's marching band.

Board member Mike Helbert said he would have a difficult time asking teachers and taxpayers to sacrifice to pay for some of the changes. He agreed that the track needed to be done and that the football field was "on the wish list."

"But to me, it's a want, not a need," Helbert said. ... "My only question is whether I can walk down the street and say yes, by golly, we've got a 10 percent unemploymet rate but we're going to spend $1.6 million on a turf football field so our kids can practice football. Not to play on, just to practice on.

"We have alternative facilities available and the question I have in my own mind is that in tough times, everybody has to make-do with something, and we're going for the Cadillac, not the Chevy."

Board members Brent Windsor and Amy Scheller disagreed.

Windsor said that high school freshmen and sophomores would play their football games on the new field and junior varsity and varsity soccer games also would be played there.

"So it isn't practice only," Windsor said.

He and Scheller each said the TRYSA soccer fields that EHS needs to use now is not in good condition. The main field has been abandoned because of cracks and holes, and the senior varsity soccer players compete on an adjoining field where bleachers are broken and scoreboards don't work.

"I have nothing against TRYSA," Windsor said. "It's an excellent program and they do the best that they can."

Windsor said that the new field would be needed later and that now is a better time to finance it.

"I don't feel that it's a luxury," he said. "I feel like the time is now. ... My feeling is that we will be paying for that facility (eventually) and we will be paying interest on it and it will cost much, much more."

Scheller agreed that the soccer field situation needs to be remedied.

When her brother died, his memorial fund was donated to TRYSA for improvements. The complex now has deteriorated.

"And so for me, the perspective I have is ... let's invest in our infrastructure if we have the financial capability," Scheller said. "That to me has changed this from a want to a do-able need."

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