School board seeks estimates for completing KW athletics complex

CASPER, Wyo. — A majority of the Natrona County School District Board of Trustees voted to advance a late-addition agenda item Monday to solicit design proposals for upgrades to Kelly Walsh High School’s athletics and activities complex, including an activities support building.

The item was discussed at infrastructure steering committee meeting last week and added by the motion of Trustee Raymond Catellier at the board’s regular meeting on Sept. 9.

Catellier said the discussion around the Kelly Walsh Master Plan and maintenance projects district-wide.  The full list of those “major maintenance” projects would all qualify for state funding, Catellier said, as would about $3 million-worth of the upgrades specific to KW’s activities complex. Catellier put the total cost at roughly $9 million, though it would take hiring an engineering firm to find out for sure.

Catellier and Trustee Chair Kevin Christopherson emphasized that the board action would only cost the money it took to advertise for engineering input, but Trustees Mary Schmidt and Jenifer Hopkins took issue with the action-item introduction on Monday, saying the committee hadn’t voted to advance the proposal at their meeting last week.

Schmidt said more pressing concerns at KW, including the need for new crosswalks and ADA-compliant ramps, had also been identified at the meeting, and that the bathrooms, scoreboard and turf upgrades were a want, not a need.

“The entire student body deserves that attention first,” Schmidt said.

Trustee Jenifer Hopkins agreed with Schmidt: “I feel like we’re being pushed to get this done when there’s other things going on.”

Christopherson and Trustee Rita Walsh both asserted that athletics and activities were integral to overall student success.

“I can’t tell you how many times people come and tell us how the kid that’s involved in activities stays in school,” Christopherson said.

“Research has proven that athletics and activities keep our kids in school and help with graduation rates,” Walsh said. “It may be the only reason they come and stay, but they have to keep their grades up if they want to continue.”

Christopherson added that the improvements would only complete the KW undertaken a decade ago when money was tight due to the simultaneous construction of the Pathways Innovation Center and overhaul of Natrona County High School. He added that funding for the upgrades was included in the previous year’s general budget.

“We’ve always known that Kelly Walsh was not complete… and one of the problems is the lack of restrooms,” Christopherson said. He and Catellier said that the pair of Port-a-Potties ill-served the public at large events.

“This is not just want, it’s a necessity,” Christopherson said.

Catellier added that other pedestrian safety and ADA concerns identified by Schmidt could still be addressed expediently.

“All we’re trying to do is get the ball rolling on the design so that when we get the design, we get firm numbers on what the building is,” Catellier said. “Then we can make the decision: is this something we want to do now?”

The district-wide list of major maintenance projects to be paid for by the Wyoming School Facilities Commission was not disputed and is included below: