Galena voters to vote on $7.5 million school bond issue - KOAM TV 7

Galena voters to vote on $7.5 million school bond issue

Updated March 12, 2013:  Galena, Kansas residents will vote in June on a proposed $7.5 million bond issue for the city's schools. The school board has voted to put the issue on the ballot.

The construction project would include classrooms and space for tornado shelters at Spring Grove Elementary and Galena High School.

Posted February 28, 2013:  The Galena School District has learned it will cost $7.5 million to expand classrooms and add a gym.

The district wants to add two classrooms at the Spring Grove Elementary to ease crowding and meet growth needs in the district.

Plans are also in the works for a new gymnasium that connects to new science rooms that teachers say are desperately needed.  Current science rooms have only one sink and few if any lab stations.

"They're just not meeting the needs of the 21st century and the science the kids need in this day and age," says Galena Schools Superintendent Brian Smith.  "When we originally built those they were designed for 16 kids in a class and we have about 24 in our class - I've had to schedule some of the classes up to 26, so it's very tight and overcrowded, especially when you get to working on experiments."

The high school was built in 1963.

Rooms in the gym and at the elementary school would be designed to double as storm shelters.

The public would also be welcome to use the weight room and a walking track around the new gym.

The board will vote on whether or not to put a bond issue on the June ballot at its next meeting on March 11.