Borg Report September 15, 2022

As I mentioned in last week’s Borg Report, the Westonka School Board Facilities Committee spent much of the past year conducting a review of facilities needs across the district. Areas of study included:

• Facility maintenance
• Grade configuration
• Early Learning Center Phase II
• Building/campus security
• Building capacities
• Design of educational space and whether it supports 21st Century Learners
• Activity space

To aid in this process, the district received an updated demographic study to help project enrollment over the next 10 years and to ensure we understand the capacity of our buildings. At the July 2022 Westonka School Board meeting, demographer Hazel Reinhardt presented that the Westonka District will have stable to slightly increasing enrollment over the next decade.

[July 11, 2022 Demographic Study Report]

These projections indicate that the district should have sufficient classroom space to accommodate enrollment in the near term. That being the case, the facilities committee believes that the appropriate time to further explore the expansion of early learning and/or K-12 grade reconfiguration will be at a time when our overall enrollment requires us to add space to support our students. This will ensure that these areas of focus can be examined in a comprehensive way that will have lasting value to our students and community.  

With the results of the demographic study, the school board called for a community survey to help the district better understand the attitudes and opinions of residents of the Westonka School District and to gauge the level of support for the remaining four areas studied by the facilities committee:

1. Facility maintenance
   • Deferred maintenance improvements across all district schools, including HVAC, pipes, boilers and ADA accessibility
2. Building/campus security
   • Security improvements in all buildings, including the addition of a secured entrance at Grandview Middle School
3. Design of educational space and whether it supports 21st Century Learners
   • Including interior redesign of Mound Westonka High School to increase security and improve the functionality and learning environment for students
4. Activity space
   • Outdoor activity space improvements on the high school campus to expand field use

The results of the community survey were presented at Monday night’s school board meeting. While the purpose of the survey was to collect general community opinions and did not include any finalized project proposals, I am pleased to report that residents indicated support for the district overall, as well as support for the communicated facility areas of focus. 

[September 12, 2022 Community Survey Report]

With this information, we will be continuing the facilities review process during the 2022-23 school year with staff focus groups. This will allow us to gain broader input on maintenance, security, educational and co-curricular facilities needs across the district. 

I will continue to provide regular updates on this process through the Borg Report. School families and staff will also have opportunities to share input on plans as they are developed.

As always, if you have any questions, concerns or comments, please feel free to contact me directly.

Sincerely,