Nebo School District officials may again need to bond for new construction projects, just a year after voters approved a $16 million bond for similar projects, including a new Payson Middle School.
Three of the district's buildings appear to be in need of either replacement or drastic renovation to keep up with packed enrollments - in particular Spanish Fork Intermediate School, which houses nearly 2,000 middle school- and junior high school-age students from Spanish Fork, Salem and Woodland Hills - according to members of the district's building recommendations committee.Spanish Fork Intermediate officials estimate that more than 10 percent of Nebo's total enrollment attends the 100-plus-classroom facility and that by the 1993-94 school year, the school's total enrollment will certainly reach 2,000.
Jack Lundell, chairman of the recommendation committee, recently told members of the Nebo School Board that a new middle school is needed in Spanish Fork and that the district should turn Spanish Fork Intermediate into Spanish Fork Junior High.
Lundell said despite new classroom construction at the intermediate school, part of the $16 million in construction Nebo voters approved last year, the already crowded school could reach a crisis situation during the next decade. In fact, a few Spanish Fork area parents originally opposed the 1992 bond election on the grounds that the district needed to build a new Spanish Fork Middle School before it built the new Payson Middle School.
To fund the new school, which could be built near the existing school's northwest side, the district would again need to bond, according to Nebo Finance Director Errol Smith. The district is currently nowhere near its bonding limits, and further bonds could be undertaken. However, general obligation bonds for new construction would require another special election.
Cost of the new school project would be slightly less than that of the new Payson Middle School, which cost more than $7 million. The committee has recommended that the district use the same designs for the Spanish Fork school as for Payson, saving money in the design and engineering phase.
The new Payson school is designed to hold more than 1,200 students and would allow for further construction should growth warrant. Construction on that school has begun and the building should be ready for the 1994-95 school year. If the district begins construction of a new Spanish Fork school, it likely would not be ready until the 1995-96 school year.
However, district officials still have not committed to the Spanish Fork construction project until they find out the status of Taylor Elementary in Payson and Rees Elementary in Spanish Fork. Those two schools were damaged in the winter's heavy snowstorms and could also need replacement. An engineering report on those schools' structural conditions is expected within the month.