By JUDY SHERARD

jsherard@dailynews.net

Some Hays USD 489 students could be using new facilities next school year.

Two new buildings, a Felten Middle School addition and a Hays High School fitness facility, are on the agenda for the board of education meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Toepfer Board Room at the Rockwell Administration Center, 323 W. 12th.

The board will consider bids for the Felten addition and using district funds to finish the HHS building project.

More space is needed at Felten because the board voted in June to close Kennedy Middle School and move those students to Felten. The combined school will be named Hays Middle School.

In May, Kennedy had 251 students and Felten 440 students. Administrators estimate the combined middle school will have 600 students. Many of the Kennedy students are expected to attend the newly organized Thomas More Prep-Marian Junior High, which enrolled 109 students this week for the 2012-13 school year.

When the board voted to close Kennedy, administrators presented a plan to purchase six modulars providing 12 classrooms for the additional students. Cost for the modulars was estimated at $558,000, to be paid off with $279,000 per year.

The modulars were meant to be temporary until the district could build eight classrooms on the east side of the building.

However, board members last fall began discussing a 7,280 square-foot metal building addition with six classrooms and two restrooms instead of the modulars. The building will be attached to the west side of Felten.

The district has been approved for the first step in a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to help offset the cost and build classrooms that could serve as storm shelters.

Roth has said the grant approval will be on the agenda at a later meeting.

In November, the board approved an 8 percent architectural and engineering fee estimated at $78,640 for the Felten addition.

The metal building will be insulated and finished like the rest of the school, and unlike modular classrooms, it will be accessed from inside the school.

District architect Terry Ault estimated construction cost for the metal building at $983,000.

Though the cost is higher, Superintendent Will Roth said in November a metal building is a more permanent structure and could be used to enlarge the music room or cafeteria later.

Lease purchase financing bids for the building also will be presented Monday night.

The Felten addition will be financed in the same manner as the elementary school classrooms a few years ago, Deputy Superintendent Richard Cain said.

"We'll make payments on it and own it at the end," he said.

The board also is expected to vote on using district funds to finish the Hays High School fitness facility.

The project to build a 7,200 square-foot facility on the southeast corner of Hays High School began more than two years ago as a community fundraising project, Building F.A.S.T. -- an acronymn for fitness and strength together.

In a 2009 letter to The Hays Daily News, HHS Principal Mike Hester wrote "all funds for this project will be private monetary or in-kind donations."

"The board never made any promises," Superintendent Will Roth said. "People came to the board and offered to go out and raise money for something that was needed."

Roth said circumstances are different now than they were three years ago when the group organized.

In April, the board voted to transfer construction oversight to the USD 489 Foundation for Education Excellence. Paul-Wertenberger Construction Inc. is in charge of construction management.

Construction of the structure started in August before all of the money to complete it had been raised.

Hays High strength and conditioning teacher Ryan Cornelson -- the school's football and track coach -- told foundation members in January the group started the project without having all of the money to take advantage of in-kind donations. Total project cost is estimated at $376,308.

Building F.A.S.T. business committee chairman and foundation board member Joel Willhoft asked the district last fall for the money, estimated at $135,920, to complete it. The money would come from the district's capital outlay budget.

If no changes are made to the state program, the district hopes to get new facilities weighting money for the Felten addition and Hays High fitness room. Money received for new facilities weighting goes into the general fund.