Ephrata schools eye $75M bond vote in February election

EPHRATA — Voters in the Ephrata School District will likely be asked in February to support a 25-year, $75 million construction bond measure.

If approved, it will fund construction of two new schools to replace Grant Elementary and Parkway Intermediate, plus add six classrooms, administrative space, and a new performing arts auditorium at Ephrata High School.

Additionally, up to $27 million would come from the state’s School Construction Assistance Program, which provides matching funds to support eligible construction projects, the school district said.

On Monday, Ephrata School Board members authorized district superintendent Ken Murray to prepare a resolution for their November meeting that calls for a special election in February.

Monday’s action followed a presentation by members of a facilities study group that included community leaders, school personnel, and architect and bond financing experts involved in the district’s other construction projects at Columbia Ridge Elementary and the Ephrata Middle School.

Over the past two years, said members Jeremy Burns and Autumn Dietrich, the group conducted a community survey and studied multiple scenarios to develop a bond proposal they felt the community could afford, that best serves students and families, and accommodates future growth.

To get “the biggest bang for our buck,” Dietrich told school board members Jim Adams, Casey Devine, and Mike Fleurkens.

Actually, slightly over a buck — an increase of $1.07 per $1,000 of assessed valuation beginning in 2027, according to planning estimates.

For property owners in the school district, it would bump their overall assessment rate to $4.66 per $1,000 of valuation. That’s consistent with what they were paying in years 2015-18, when rates varied between $4.70 and $5 per $1,000.

Included in that $4.66 figure is a current short-term levy for educational programs and operations, plus ongoing repayment of a construction bond approved by voters in 2019.

Murray said “lessons were learned” from that 20-year, $28 million bond measure. With it, the district also qualified for an additional $46 million in state funding. The monies paid for complete renovation of Columbia Ridge Elementary and the Ephrata Middle School plus the addition of new full-sized gyms and music classrooms.

Initially, school officials expected the combined funding would also be enough to pay for comparable work at Grant Elementary and to remodel the performing arts center and “old” gym at the high school.

But those hopes were stymied during the COVID-19 pandemic, when costs soared for labor and materials in completing the Middle School and Columbia Ridge projects. The Ridge was particularly problematic after workers, during the tear-down, encountered asbestos which prompted further delays and an expensive abatement process.

“New construction is (now) more cost-effective than remodeling,” Murray told the school board.

Doing so, he said, will provide more-efficient use of building space, address future enrollment growth, eliminate reliance on portable classrooms, and improve school security and traffic management.

Those are all problems at Grant and Parkway – both over a half-century old with small gyms that must also function as cafeterias.

Murray said students at the two schools deserve “equity” with their peers attending the modernized Ridge and Middle schools. And building new schools, rather than remodeling the existing ones, avoids the headache of shuffling students into makeshift classrooms for months at a time while construction work continues under the same roof, he said.

As envisioned, the “new” Parkway and Grant schools will be two-story structures. Grant would be located adjacent to Columbia Ridge Elementary; Parkway would be sited on a portion of the playground/high school practice field just north of the existing Grant School.

If voters okay the bond proposal, design work is scheduled to begin this coming spring. The projects would be bid in the spring of 2027, construction would start that summer with occupancy expected in late August of 2028.

The “old” Grant and Parkway buildings would then be “decommissioned” — that is, no longer used to house students, a factor in seeking state matching funds for new construction.

Design work for the high school project would start in 2027, construction would begin in summer 2028 and wrap up in late summer 2029. While that project is more limited in scope, it would address the school’s immediate needs, officials said.

“I think people would love to see a new high school … but the money’s not there yet,” said Burns.

Other presenters during Monday’s board meeting included Ned Warnick of Design West Architects; Cory Plager of bond consultant DA Davidson; facility study member and former longtime school board member Bill Correll; Grant Elementary kindergarten teacher Shannon Sheneman; Parkway Intermediate dean of students Jenna Tupling; and EHS/EMS choral teacher Tim O’Donnell.

Correll, Sheneman, and Tupling all grew up in Ephrata, attended local schools, and shared opinions on the current inadequacies at Grant and Parkway.

“Both of my grandparents went to Parkway,” said Tupling. “My grandmother remembers playing on dirt piles there when the (West) canal was constructed.”

That was in the early 1950s.

Correll, now 72, was among the first class of first-graders to attend Grant Elementary, quipping, “That was a while ago.” He called the proposed bond “an investment in the community” that would continue Ephrata’s reputation for providing quality education to students.

O’Donnell, in his 20th year as a teacher at the high school, said over 900 students are currently occupying a building designed to hold 500. EHS is nearly 40 years old and sits on a sprawling campus that utilizes the even-older Beezley Springs and antiquated PAC facilities.

School board member Fleurkens voiced confidence in the study group’s work and thanked members for their efforts. And board president Jim Adams encouraged the members to continue their community outreach, saying, “Everybody in this room has to go out and do their footwork.”