Architects Begin Work On Doyle Elementary

Architects have completed an initial assessment for the six-classroom extension planned for Doyle Elementary.

Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said their architects will now begin to work on drawings and estimated budgets for the project. Dronebarger said they do not have a timeline in place for the work but based on his experience they are not likely to start taking bids until late December.

“The existing building right now, the front of the school has a hallway,” Dronebarger said. “The most recent addition to that school has six classrooms on it already so this would just be the other side of that hallway and it just made sense to add that number of classrooms just to the existing building. It’ll continue with the current aesthetics but it’ll also provide them with the necessary space that they need.”

Dronebarger said the new classrooms are the next major item on the district’s five-year plan. He said it is an important addition as the school has seen considerable growth in recent years especially considering its small size.

“I wouldn’t see us doing any groundbreaking or anything at the earliest maybe by late spring or early summer of next year,” Dronebarger said.

Board Members Tracy Fowler and Jayson McDonald said they have received questions about a potential expansion for the school’s gym.

Dronebarger said they do not plan to expand the gym as the only time the size is an issue is during elementary basketball season.

“We get that about this time every year,” Dronebarger said. “It’s a problem about six nights out of the year. So we’ve just, not against doing it but it is a big expense and then we’d have to address the gyms at BonDeCroft and Cassville probably as well ’cause they’re a similar size. So I think I would do something different with elementary basketball before I would spend millions of dollars to increase the size of those gyms.”

Dronebarger said they have been able to reduce the issue for other events such as award ceremonies by holding multiple events throughout the day for different age groups.

“We could live stream games and do reserve seating and do some different things to eliminate that before we would spend millions of dollars I think on the gyms,” Dronebarger said.