Board to Consider Options for Central HS Fiasco

State law does not permit the construction of schools in land designated for parks, except by permission of the voters. School and city officials, consulting engineers and architects all missed this issue for months while plans were being developed for the expansion of Central High School. Now the District apparently has four options:

• ask the Legislature to change the law to add schools to the list of facilities allowed in park land;
• ask the voters of Rapid City to approve the construction;
• redesign the planned renovation to build on the North side of the campus; or
• abandon the expansion altogether and redirect the investment to a new high school.

The Board of Education will meet Wednesday, November 19 at 4:30 p.m. to consider these and perhaps other options. For the moment, the District has asked the architects to stop work on the project until a decision is made. Already the District has invested $400,000 – $500,000 in the current plan. The money came from the District’s capital outlay budget, and not from the general fund which covers salaries and operations. Capital outlay money is used for building construction and repair, equipment and computer purchases as well as durable items like text books and even band uniforms.

Resolution of the land issue is already heating up with Friends of Rapid City Parks who organized several years ago to resist the continued loss of park land to construction projects. If the issue is brought to the voters in Rapid City, they are talking about opposing the measure. But avoiding the voters in Rapid City by going to the Legislature to seek a special change in the law could also be difficult. The Board is likely to consider these issues and more in its discussion.

Kayla Gahagan has tracked this issue since it became public last Friday in a series of stories in the Rapid City Journal:

• Wednesday, 11/18 – Central expansion plot both flood zone and park land
• Monday, 11/16 – Board faces tough choice with Central expansion options
• Saturday, 11/14 – Land oversight could derail Central High Project

The Board meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at the City/School Administration Center at 300 Sixth Street. The public discussion of Central may be delayed, however, as the Board will meet first in Executive Session to consider a student suspension and then hear a presentation from the District’s attorneys on the legal options related to the Central issue.

To read the Rapid City Journal’s editorial on the issue, click here: RCJ editorial.