In Addition To A New Gymnasium Complex – K-14 Expects to Upgrade Cafeteria & Fine Arts Building With Combined Funds

If Kingston K-14 passes a no-tax-increase bond issue initiative, combined bonding capacity and federal ESSER funds will be used to reconfigure, remodel and address safety concerns associated with a 66 year-old cafeteria and a stand-alone 35 year-old fine arts building. These capital improvements will be made in conjunction with the announced proposed construction of a new gymnasium with music department classrooms.

Kingston K-14 is asking the public to approve a $3.35 million no-tax-increase bond issue to provide funds to construct an additional gymnasium and to upgrade classroom facilities. Passage of the bond issue will not increase the district’s property tax levy.
The Kingston K-14 Board of Education voted unanimously on January 20th to place the no-tax-increase general obligation bond issue on the April ballot to be used for the construction of a new gymnasium complex and other capital upgrades. District officials say that modernizing the junior and high school has always been in the works if funding could be stretched far enough to allow such capital improvements. A combination of funding sources can make those improvements a reality if the bond issue passes.

Funding options include federal ESSER monies appropriated to the schools and the sale of construction bonds. In 2020 and 2021, the U.S. Congress passed three stimulus bills (American Rescue Plan Act) which provided nearly $190.5 billion to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund. States received funds based on the same proportion that each state receives under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title-IA.
The district has the ability to borrow money for improvements based on the refinancing of existing bonds. Taxes will not go down if the measure fails, because Kingston will continue to pay off debt related to the construction of Kingston Elementary finished in 2013, and Kingston Primary finished in 2003. The district adjusted debt service levy will remain unchanged at $0.9895 per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation of real and personal property. Kingston has not raised its levy in the past 15 years.

Beyond a new gymnasium and additional new construction spaces, district officials said that it is very important to improve the junior high/high school cafeteria and improve main building bathrooms, a priority for current students who were polled by the district’s architectural/design firm, Incite Design Studio (St. Louis).
The current JH/HS cafeteria was completed in 1956 (Cruise Elementary) along with the rest of the oldest (south) wing of the building. “D” Building dates back to 1987. “D” Building originally housed upper elementary. The high school addition was completed in 1996. According to the current administration, Kingston needs to modernize and enlarge the overall footprint for Grades 6-12 students, and take the pressure off of the elementary and primary buildings to house junior high and high school athletics and events.
There is no dispute that Kingston K-14 is growing, and the District believes that it is time to unify these diverse and disparate building structures, in addition to building a gymnasium with fine arts classrooms. The existing cafeteria has not had any appreciable upgrades in over 66 years.
A remodel of the JH/HS cafeteria will include an enhanced second serving line for quicker student service and a bigger footprint. Students now eat in three shifts with very little time for lunch. The existing cafeteria pulled double duty as a gymnasium and multipurpose space until 1985.
Kingston will improve bathrooms and construct an inside entryway into D Building. Junior high art and high school art will be housed in the same building with storage and a kiln room. With the moving of junior high art from the main building, a large classroom will be open for classes such as robotics. “D” Building has not been improved or upgraded in 35 years.
A band room and a choir room (gym project space) will have extra bathrooms to service those spaces, in addition to gymnasium lobby rest rooms. Up until recent years, both high school and junior high art, along with a combined choir and band room, were all squeezed together into D Building. D Building has open air access only, along an outside walkway which the District believes puts students at risk on a closed campus.
“We are positioned to substantially improve the facilities of a district that is growing,” said Kingston K-14 Superintendent Dr. Lee Ann Wallace. “Administrators from the 1950s, 1980s, and 1990s could not have anticipated the growth of grades 6-12 in the 2020s. We really need to add gymnasium and classroom spaces. We also need to rework existing older spaces that are outdated and were pushed together in a rather haphazard fashion. Our junior high and high school buildings will fit together better for the safety and the educational needs of our students.”

“A successful bond issue will address our pressing needs for space and security, and position us for a brighter future,” said Wallace. “Our Kingston families certainly deserve it.”