While structurally sound, the district’s facilities were being negatively affected by internal issues with the mechanical, electrical, and air quality systems. Decreasing revenue, declining enrollments, and a reduction of state funding had caused deferred maintenance costs to increase. Their facilities no longer provided environments that were conducive to the learning process. The objective was to help Yellow Medicine East identify a facility improvement strategy that would reduce costs and free up valuable resources for education. By developing a long-term master facility plan to stabilize costs and avoid unexpected facility expenditures, they were able to rehabilitate their facilities’ infrastructure, modernize classroom and hallway layouts, and revitalize invaluable community assets. With the help of $6 million in project cost savings thanks to federally subsidized Qualified Zone Academy Bonds, Yellow Medicine East has saved over $72,000 in annual operating costs. The new, modern design has not only been well received from an aesthetic perspective, but has also improved school security and hallway traffic flow.
Project Specs
Average Age of Facilities: 47 years District Square Ft: 244, 393 No. of Facilities: 2