Published: October 14, 2009 10:29 am      

Construction to begin on agriculture barn

Construction on a new Grandview High School ag barn is expected to begin in early December, Grandview school trustees learned at a regularly scheduled meeting Monday night.

The preliminary price tag for the 12,000-square foot facility is $700,000.

“That does not include utility construction,” said Superintendent Keith Scharnhorst said. “We have a few options there, but I think the total cost will be more than $700,000.”

The facility will be located south of Zebra Parkway, across the street from the existing ag facility. Ag students had finally outgrown the old barn.

“Our ag program has been really successful,” Scharnhorst said. “Many of the kids need a place to put their projects. This will be an animal barn for sheep, goats, pigs and cattle. It won’t be for a classroom.”

Grandview ISD owns the 100 acres of land that will contain the ag facility. It has asked the city of Grandviuew to annex the property.

“That will allow city services to go out to that property,” Scharnhorst said.

Trustees also learned that Grandview ISD will submit a high school enrollment figure of 348 to the University Interscholastic League for realignment purposes. Class 2A numbers presently range from 200 to 420.

“We’re in the middle of the pack, so we’ll stay 2A unless there’s some sort of drastic change,” Scharnhorst said. “Our growth has been about 1 percent a year. The last day of September, our district enrollment was 1,115. The last day of September last year, it was 1,108.”

In other action, the trustees voted to buy new band uniforms and received an update on the long-range planning committee.