Wentzville Hopes to Launch a Fourth High School
District plans to incorporate new schools and classrooms to accommodate wide student growth
Construction of a new school has not began. However, the location has been chosen.
Wentzville continues to be one of the fastest growing school districts in Missouri. This includes an addition of 1,000 students to the in the past two years, reaching a total of 16,380 students in grades K-12. The district is currently the 11th largest school district in Missouri.
To help manage the growth of students, a $125 million no-tax-increase bond issue was voted unanimously to be put in place on the April 3 ballot. A no-tax-increase bond is essentially a loan obtained from taxes without causing taxes to increase.
Included in this bond issue will be a new high school and elementary school, classroom additions at Barfield Early Childhood Special Education Center, Peine Ridge Elementary and Pearce Hall. This will also incorporate a new gymnasium at Holt High School. The high school would be set to open in fall 2021.
Now it comes down to waiting for the April ballot and hearing what the voters have to say. However, there is a possibility that the bond issue won’t go through, which would delay the opening of the high school for a year.
Ms. Rosner is Liberty’s building representative for the teacher union NEA (National Educators Association).
“So (if it doesn’t go through) then they would wait and ask again a second time. Sometimes they’ll change what they say they’re going to use the money for, but what it will ultimately do is delay. We have to have a place for kids,” Ms. Rosner said. “With Liberty, they couldn’t get it passed the first time, so they reduced it and we only built two thirds of the building. Then they had to go back and ask for more money to build the rest of it.”
In Missouri, non-metropolitan school districts are required to ask voter approval for the following: purchasing sites for new buildings, construction of new buildings, repairs of facilities, purchasing transportation and paying off bond obligations.
The bond issue, “Proposition E” will be put in place to increase funding for local schools by raising the Education Fund tax rate; which hasn’t been raised since 1977.
According to Executive Director of Facilities, John Blanton, a new high school will take around three years to build.
To accommodate for the addition of new school(s), the district purchased 108.9 acres of land on the northeast corner of W. Meyer Road and N. Point Prairie in Wentzville. The district entered into an agreement on June 28, 2017.
The cost of the property was $3,906,473 and is being funded with proceeds from Proposition E from April 2015; the appraised value of the land being $4,357,659.
“We are very pleased with the purchase price,” district CFO Pam Frazier said in a district press release. “Given the appraisal and the growing challenge of finding suitable suits that are large enough for a school at a price that is fair for our stakeholders.”
A patch of land has been purchased by the WSD. The location is capable of holding two new schools.
Two new elementary schools were opened as a part of the K-6 Plan for Growth. The program was put in place to help relieve overcrowding in the middle schools, without a tax increase.
“Our K-6 plan addressed our space issues at our middle schools for the first time without a tax increase and provided us time to pay down our debt so that our next buildings could also be built without asking the voters to approve the tax increase,” superintendent Dr. Cain said in a district press release. “We are working to effectively manage our continued growth… It is certainly a challenge, but it’s one we are familiar with and we are fortunate to have an amazing team committed to moving this great district forward and providing adequate space for all students to learn and grow.”
The district will keep working to accommodate students as the population in the area continues to grow.