Kaw Valley expands St. Marys Junior-Senior High School

For 13-year-old Layne Cole, who likes science, and above all math, a recent expansion to St. Marys Junior-Senior High School means a chance to do experiments in class and collaborate better with fellow students.

In January, Kaw Valley Unified School District 321 finished construction at this school, a project that cost together with an addition to St Marys Grade School completed in August about $2.4 million.

On a recent evening, Cole and her classmates offered guided tours for the public to view the changes to their school, which took about four years from the initial planning phases to completion.

We got these new desks that will improve our groups, the eighth-grader explained as she showed the room where she takes Algebra I, taught by Shannon Kent.

The desks in this room and others are wedge-shaped, rather than square, allowing the teachers to cluster them as needed into half circles that allow the students to face each other and the front of the classroom at the same time.

According to superintendent Kerry Lacock, the district completed the grade school and junior-senior high expansions with a bank loan the district is repaying over a three-year period with local tax dollars reserved for capital construction and maintenance costs.

USD 321, a district of about 1,200 students, has one of the highest per-pupil property valuations in the state, related largely to a coal plant located within its boundaries. That means it doesnt qualify for state aid for construction expenditures.

The district added about 6,400 square feet to the grade school four first and second-grade classrooms, a teacher workroom and extra bathrooms. To the junior-senior high, it added about 12,400 square feet, including new special education facilities for the seventh through 12th grades, a science lab, three junior high classrooms, a junior high commons area, bathrooms, and a canopy-covered drive-up entrance.

The special education facilities include small rooms for breakout sessions, a sensory room to help students, including those with diagnoses on the autism spectrum, calm down a living area, a classroom, and a kitchen, laundry room and bathroom, all designed to be accessible for people with disabilities.

Cori Hare, a special education teacher, said the suite of special education rooms has improved the daily experiences of her students, and, she believes, is helping reduce absences and behavioral issues.

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Kaw Valley expands St. Marys Junior-Senior High School