The Mid-Prairie School Board toured the district’s buildings in Wellman during their meeting September 27th to review possible expansion opportunities.

The board was led on a tour of the high school to review possible additions and renovations to existing rooms. Possible additions include a fine arts auditorium and support space with seating of about 500 or 600, an orchestra pit, a band and vocal practice space with extra storage and a second story wrestling and weight room facility. Renovation options include the existing band and vocal area being broken up into three classrooms, an office and science lab, upgrades to the existing commons with an elevated commons seating area and kitchen upgrades. 

Outside of the high school building, proposed projects include a parking lot expansion with a retaining wall, modifying the track for an eight lane equal quadrant track and a new athletic facility south of Highway 22 with a sod or synthetic turf field. Estimated costs for these projects range from $680,000 to $10,990,000. The board was led on a tour of West Elementary following the high school tour. Three projects were brought to the board including a classroom and storage room addition and converting existing vestibules into a cubby room and bathroom, a main office addition and converting the existing office in a special needs/support office space, and converting six classroom vestibules to bathrooms with new window openings. Projects outside of the West Elementary building include a couple options for a newly paved parking lot  with a retaining wall. 

Superintendent Mark Schneider says that now they have finished facility tours, the board will begin to focus on laying out short term and long term goals to help assess next steps.