G-E-T schools will start assessment of facility needs

The Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau School District will work with a Wisconsin company to develop a capital improvement plan and evaluate its current facilities.

The G-E-T school board approved the contract with Nexus Solutions last Monday by a 7-2 vote, with members Mark Kopp and Harold Olson opposed.

“Yes they will come up with ideas for us, but they’ll look at it from an angle in which none of us have the expertise to do,” District Administrator Michele Butler told the board. “They’re going to look at it from ADA compliance, they’re going to look at it by interviewing so many people about, ‘What are you needing to educate students in today’s environment?’”

Nexus Solutions’ website reads it is “determined to provide a client-centric, single-source approach to developing facilities solutions for our K-12, higher education and municipal clients.”

The newest district building is the middle school, constructed in 2010, while Trempealeau Elementary — constructed in 1932 — is the oldest.

“Our buildings represent a different time,” Butler said, “and they (Nexus) can look at our buildings and find ways that we can possibly do some renovations. And also the aspect of safety. … our buildings right now are falling short.”

Nexus will likely start visiting and studying district buildings across the next few months and follow with community input meetings and sit-downs with staff. Final suggestions could take until the end of the 2024-25 school year, Butler said.

Olson asked on Monday if the district is headed toward a referendum, to which both Butler and school board president Pat Malone responded that last week’s approval is about researching the current state of facilities.

“They (Nexus) will have a whole list of possible actions. Some of them we can probably afford with just general operational dollars. There may be some of them that we’d have to go to referendum,” Malone said. “Does that mean, yes we’re going to referendum? I don’t know. But we cannot unless we have a good, solid plan that is transparent and clear to everybody on the board, all the staff, the students and the parents and the rest of the taxpayers.”

No contract was presented, and no payment was due for the district’s agreement with Nexus as of Monday. Butler said the district considered “several” companies and talked with other districts before deciding on Nexus, which has worked with the Bangor and Holmen school districts.

Pay to Nexus occurs if the school district starts projects, which would see them work with Nexus architects and designers at market rates, according to Butler.

“The district may decide that they want to do the projects as they have funds available or they may decide that these projects are just so essential with where we’re going and based on community input we want to go ahead,” Butler told the Times in a separate conversation last week. “At that point, then there would be a discussion of whether or not we go to referendum. That’s really premature at this point.”

Staff often present requests to improve safety procedures in the buildings, Butler said, adding the high school received “great” updates in technical education and science rooms, but the business area needs help.

The district uses closets for different educational reasons, according to Butler, who also said the elementary schools are dated and don’t meet the needs of special education students.

“It’s squeezed tight right now,” Butler said. “I think it’s worthy of a study. I think we’re going to have to really prioritize and don’t think it’s going to be easy making decisions, but I also know that you look to all the districts around us and they’ve all upgraded their facilities. We’ve done things, but some of our schools need some work.”

Any construction, if needed, is at least one to two years out, Butler said last week, reiterating that a referendum is no guarantee and residents will be involved in the process.

“This is just the beginning. It’s going to take a while,” she said. “We’re going to look for a lot of community input before any steps are taken. I think that’s important. We want the community totally on board with what we’re doing. No surprises.”