The Gresham School Board, at its most recent meeting, met with representatives with Kraus Anderson to discuss options and the opening plans for their remodeling and renovation project for their school.
While not a whole lot of new information was shared since the process has been restarted, Gresham School Board President Andy Schmidt says it was a good opportunity to touch base with the firm.
“We’re just starting over, and every meeting we’ll get more and more in depth,” Schmidt said of the school working with Kraus Anderson. “Not too much surprised [us], but [we’re] excited and interested on the information we did learn tonight to get the ball rolling again and get to where we want to be.”
In terms of financing the project, the school district had already begun to plan the consultation from Kraus Anderson for this year’s budget, said Director of Finance Holly Burr.
“The participation by Kraus Anderson right now is included in the current budget that was approved and anything beyond that is further out, so that would be a discussion for next year and the further out budget.”
Overall, Superintendent Newell Haffner explains the improvements that will be made to the school will allow Gresham to separate them from the average district.
“I’m not happy being average and this is the process to stop us from being average,” Haffner believes. “I think the way Kraus Anderson is going about this is we’re actually going to develop a 21st century learning environment for our kids and that’s what all of us want, me as a Superintendent, the teachers, and as a parent in the community. We want the best we can have for our kids.”
The next step for the district is to meet again next month to discuss the options that are available to address the deficiencies. School administrators say they welcome the input of the public, and anyone is invited to attend the next meeting.