Lisbon school board members Allan Mallie and John Prasil, who serve on the facilities committee, noted that the district will be looking at prioritizing some needed improvements to the building in the next few years.
While Lisbon has made a lot of improvements with the completion of their bond renovation and construction projects at roughly $8 million, Prasil said there are a number of repairs and projects that the district still needs to see completed.
“That $8 million project could easily have been a $20 million project if we could have financed that,” Prasil said. “There’s an extensive list of needed repairs in these facilities moving forward, as well as projects that need to be completed from the bond.”
One of those projects identified as an immediate need was the industrial arts program at Lisbon. As Kirk Wischmeyer noted, that classroom needs more space and closer proximity to classroom space to help that program grow and thrive. It’s a project that the Lisbon School board made an investment in the previous year, and one Prasil wants to see supported to help the district move forward.
Prasil notes that some of the repairs may take a lot of money to complete, which is why he and Mallie are prioritizing a one-to-three-year plan for most needed projects, and then a four-to-five-year plan and long-term plans for facility updates.
“My priority is that we develop an excellent maintenance plan for the facilities we have before we add more to the facilities as well,” Mallie said.
Adding a wrinkle is that funding for any construction projects will be limited, as the bond project ate up a lot of the board’s current debt capacity at the moment. The SAVE monies could be utilized for certain projects, but that stream has been used for the LECC building addition and computers and bus purchases.
The priority will be working to complete some of the projects identified in the original bond, and moving together on other needed projects.