Following last week’s decision by the City Council to consider leasing part of the Front Door Community Center to Great Bend USD 428, school administrators said they are interested in the partnership but in no hurry to make a decision.
The issue is where to relocate USD 428’s Parent Teacher Resource Center (PTRC) if the district ever tears down the old Washington School building.
Assistant Superintendent John Popp gave an update at Monday’s school board meeting.
“As you know, our big issue with the Washington building is what to do with the PTRC. Can we keep it where it is in (a newer portion of) the Washington building, or do we move it someplace else? We’ve been looking around.” The City has opened the door to a lease but, “We don’t have any kind of an agreement with them yet. We don’t have any kind of a contract or anything like that. It is just a potential opportunity at this point. So we are looking into that.”
One concern is that the Front Door area has less storage space than the current PTRC. On the plus side, Popp described the Front Door as a public-facing space with good access.
There has been discussion about using space at the building that houses the District Education Center and Little Panthers Preschool. USD 428 bought the former CUNA Mutual complex at 1809 24th St. in 2022.
“With 265 pre-K students here, all the teachers and staff, we very quickly ran out of room here,” Popp said. “Matter of fact, I would say that our teachers and our district office staff would say one of our main concerns is that we don’t have storage. ... So we’re using the building across the way, which is very inconvenient.”
Administrators have talked about a couple of different spaces in the building, but concluded they would not be conducive to the PTRC needs, especially when it would bring a lot of public foot traffic to a preschool.
“The Front Door ... fits a lot of the things that we need for the PTRC, but again, what we do have is the gift of time. We don’t have to be in a hurry to get them out of there,” he said.
“Again, there’s been no agreements. There’s been nothing signed. We would bring something like that to the board before we would do anything like that. But it is a potential option that the City has floated out there, and we are interested in talking about.”
Superintendent Khris Thexton said now that the City Council has approved the possibility, City Administrator Logan Burns will “look into what that opportunity would be.”
“We’re just waiting for information from them, and then we’ll bring it to the board to make that decision. That’s a feasible option for us to move forward, so we will continue to work through that,” Thexton said. “When the City does a proposal we’ll bring it to the board.”
Board President Jacquie Disque asked, “I realize your crystal ball isn’t working perfectly, but do you think this would be a permanent solution or do you think we’ll continue to look for a space that is ‘ours,’ for lack of a better word?”
With no crystal ball, Thexton answered, “Any time you have a situation like that when you’re leasing, it is always better to have your own place. I think it’s a good option. It could be a long-term option or a short-term option, depending on what shows up. Kind of like this building (at 1809 24th St.); we weren’t thinking of moving anytime soon, and it just kind of opened up. I think we’re always looking for a good opportunity.”
