ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½

That commonality has given them an opportunity to network and swap experiences as the construction projects get underway.

Pauli of Edgerton and Roth of Evansville say they have often shared ideas about their referendum projects.

Dahman, Milton’s superintendent, said he has asked Pauli questions because Edgerton’s construction started before Milton’s.

“I’ve been able to pick his brain a little bit about how their projects are going, some of the different things that he has run into, and it’s been really valuable,� said Dahman, who is new to the Milton district.

All three superintendents agree their districts’ needs were genuine and the projects will improve the quality of education.

MiltonThe Milton School District passed its $59.9 million facilities referendum last April after two previous failed referendums. The referendum will fund improvements in every school except for Northside Intermediate School.

The high school will benefit from much of the work, including additions to technical education areas, STEM classrooms and the gymnasium and a new high school pool. District maintenance needs also will get attention.

The referendum was passed before Dahman started with the district last summer. He said the process was sparked by a combination of enrollment growth and aging facilities.

“We had gone through some pretty rapid enrollment growth for a few years, and that has leveled off now, but we needed to get caught up with our facilities,� Dahman said. “And part of it was more space, especially with the high school and middle school.�

Art and music at Milton East Elementary School is now being taught in the basement, and classrooms designed for STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—don’t have enough space. With modern education taking a more hands-on approach, the changes were necessary, Dahman said.

“Students don’t typically sit in their desks in a row for 40 minutes and listen to teachers lecture,� he said. “Education is much more hands-on now. … It really is a more flexible use of your space, so students are working in small groups often, they’re working hands-on on different activities, and a lot of our current classrooms, by adding more space, it allows us to have more classrooms that have a little more size and flexibility to change the way our students are taught.�

Work in the elementary schools will be finished by the 2020-21 school year, Dahman said.

EdgertonIn Edgerton, voters passed a $40.6 million capital referendum in 2018 along with a $1.25 million recurring referendum.

Pauli, the district administrator, said district officials realized their facilities and infrastructure were aging and conducted a study that showed public support for a referendum. The newest school building in Edgerton is the middle school, opened in 1978.

The work, expected to be completed by the 2021-22 school year, involves renovating and expanding Community Elementary School, adding secure entrances to other schools and updating high school music space, science classrooms and offices.

Because of its design, Community Elementary is short on space and has a limited capacity for technology.

At the high school, Pauli said, the focus is on updating facilities to accommodate all classes. Science labs currently don’t offer enough space for all students to work at the same time.

“At the elementary level, it gives us a lot more flexible spaces and more opportunity to provide kids a variety of learning experiences that right now is very limited because of the design of current facilities and limits of infrastructure,� Pauli said.

The high school will benefit greatly from the improvements.

“When they do a science lab, half the kids are sitting out and not participating because we don’t have the space,� Pauli said. “Next year, all kids will be able to participate because there will be adequate space, adequate resources, adequate power supply and adequate gas supply coming into the labs.�

EvansvilleStudents in the Evansville School District soon will have renovated educational space thanks to a $34 million capital referendum and $1.2 million operational referendum that passed in 2018.

The district is in the midst of demolishing and rebuilding JC McKenna Middle School. The referendum funding also will improve the high school by adding STEM labs and replacing the roof, and security and infrastructure will get a boost at the Grove Campus.

The upgrades are expected to be ready for students by the 2020-21 school year.

“I think the district is on a positive upswing,� said Roth, the Evansville superintendent.

“This has always been an extremely supportive school district,� he said. “We don’t go to referendum lightly, and we always ask permission. When you do the things you say you’re going to do and they (the community) supports you in that, that builds positive momentum.

“We feel like our new facilities, all the infrastructure and operational improvements, will play out in a positive manner with our community.�

Roth said the projects, when finished, will help the district replace a 100-year-old middle school with a modern learning environment.

“They’re all about having the space appropriate for students of today’s learners. It’s having technology where you need it in a classroom, having larger spaces for hands-on activities, having a building that isn’t stretched out over such a long distance where kids take four to five minutes to get from one spot to another, having the location of classrooms be next to each other, pretty basic stuff like that,� Roth said.

It’s been a helpful coincidence having three districts undergoing referendum construction at the same time, Dahman said, “especially with me coming in new to our district, being able to talk with people locally about efforts that happened prior to me getting here...

“But also, there’s a nice network of area superintendents who are always really open to sharing their thoughts,� he said.