SPS facility investments show no signs of slowing

Stephen Hall: An updated demographic study will be needed in the next few years.

A pair of ribbon-cutting ceremonies held this month recognized the conclusion of two of the myriad projects funded by Proposition S, a $220 million bond issue for Springfield Public Schools approved two years ago by voters. It’s part of over $400 million in new and upgraded facilities the school district has invested in over the past six years as part of two phases of Prop S.

Now, district officials are beginning to look ahead toward a third phase of bond-funded projects in the next few years.

Classroom additions were celebrated the week of Sept. 15 at Field Elementary and Wilder Elementary schools. SPS Chief Communications Officer Stephen Hall said those projects were added to the original scope of Phase II for Proposition S to accommodate students from Pershing Elementary. The Springfield Board of Education voted in January 2024 to close the K-5 elementary section of Pershing School, a K-8 facility, as well as Robberson Community School, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. Students from Robberson were moved to Boyd Elementary, while Pershing K-5 students were moved to Field and Wilder elementaries.

“The board determined that they would redesign Pershing as a traditional middle school,” Hall said. “So, the small population of students that were there, K-5 in elementary, were then rezoned for either Field Elementary or Wilder Elementary, and those classroom additions made that possible.”

Approved in April 2023, the bond for the second phase of Proposition S is paying for safety and security upgrades at all school facilities. Two middle schools, Pipkin and Reed, are being replaced with new buildings, and Pershing is being renovated. Additionally, storm shelters have been constructed at Cowden, Holland, Mann, Pittman, Watkins and Wilder elementaries.

The second phase follows the school district’s $168 million bond proposal with the same name that was approved by voters in April 2019, according to past reporting.

“When you consider both Phase I and Phase II of Proposition S, we now have 22 of our schools – so nearly half of the 50-plus campuses – that have had significant either renovations or complete rebuild,” Hall said. “I think that really speaks to the scope of Proposition S and the impact that we’ve been able to make across our district thanks to voter support.”

In progress
Renovation of Pershing Middle School, a roughly $50 million project, is in the design phase, said Shawn Dilday, executive director of operations at SPS. It’s one of several projects the school district is still tackling as part of Proposition S. Dilday said two others – Bingham Elementary and Bissett Elementary – also are being designed, while construction is ongoing for Reed Academy and Pipkin Middle School. Reed, a $59 million project, is set to open in August 2026, while the $40 million Pipkin school is expected to wrap in 2027, officials say.

SPS Superintendent Grenita Lathan said she’s excited about the impact the facility investments will have on the state’s largest school district, which Hall said numbers 24,861 students. Aside from increasing natural lighting with the new facilities, she said enhanced learning and collaborative spaces are a focus.

“For example, Reed Academy is going to have an auditorium because it’s a performing arts academy,” she said.

Additionally, through Prop S’s projects, safety and security is being enhanced across the district, Lathan said.

“All of our facilities now, the first floor has protected film across all school windows and doors,” she said. “These new facilities are automatically being built with safety and security enhancements.”

Acknowledging that the past several years has added a component of managing construction projects to her list of duties as superintendent, Lathan said it’s part of the responsibility to ensure students and staff have the best learning environment possible.

Another phase
Although the current phase of Prop S isn’t set to wrap any earlier than 2028, district officials are already looking ahead toward the next phase.

Travis Shaw, deputy superintendent of operations, said the district currently calls for putting a third phase of Proposition S in front of voters by April 2028. But several steps will need to be addressed before then, officials say.

Shaw said the last facility master plan was conducted in 2016. The school district intends to put out a request for proposals in January to address the need for an updated plan, he said.

“We do have a few schools that are still on that Phase III list, and once we have the new facility master plan study done, then we’ll be able to really start looking at what that data provides us to then be able to work toward what does that list look like,” he said.

In late 2023, the Board of Education was presented with a demographic study from Davis Demographics that the then-current count of 24,132 students is expected to drop to 23,853 in 10 years’ time. While Hall said enrollment has rebounded well since the COVID-19 pandemic and is holding steady, the current SPS count includes 1,185 students enrolled virtually through Missouri Course Access and Virtual School Program.

“We believe that we are Missouri’s district of choice,” he said. “We’re demonstrating that both through the academic rigor and variety and diversity of our programs. We want our facilities to reflect that. That is why both strong academics, varied choice programs and quality learning environments are all very important to that. And we believe that we’re succeeding on all those fronts.”

In addition to the facility master plan, an upgraded demographic and boundary study will be completed as part of the process.

“By that time, that report will be about four years old, so therefore we need some updated information just to make sure that those trends that we were expecting within that demographic study are holding true as to what were originally projected,” Hall said.

‘District of choice’
SPS brands itself as “the district of choice,” and Lathan said it offers programs such as career technical education and The Alliance for Healthcare Education, which allows students to receive training in health care career paths. The school district joined CoxHealth, Missouri State University and Ozarks Technical Community College to form the alliance in 2023. An initial cohort of 32 Springfield high school students began in the alliance program in fall 2024, according to past reporting.

Lathan said challenges are oncoming as smaller families mean fewer students enrolled in school.

“Families are not having anywhere from four to five children anymore,” she said. “You’re starting to see families that have one or two children. Therefore, that will have an impact as we think about future enrollment.”

While surrounding school districts such as Ozark, Nixa and Republic continue to also invest in new and improved facilities on their campuses, Lathan said the actions of other districts are not impacting SPS operations.

“We have the necessary programs in place that we feel meets the needs of all the children that we serve, whether it’s a neighborhood school or a choice program,” she said.

Among school projects surrounding Springfield, Ozark School District utilized a voter-approved $19 million bond issue in 2022 to build several storm shelters and an indoor activities center at its high school. Multiple projects in Nixa Public Schools were paid for through a $47 million bond issue approved by voters in April 2023, including a 105,000-square-foot indoor athletic building dubbed the Apex Activity Center. In Republic, the school district in August opened its 124,000-square-foot Intermediate School that was the focus of a $47 million bond issue approved by voters in 2023, according to past reporting.

Shaw said SPS does its best to attract families to live in its district, from educational offerings, its facilities and boasting of the community it calls home.

“We do recognize that we’re essentially competing with other districts for families to move into the area, and facilities are absolutely one of those things,” he said. “That’s why there has been such a tremendous effort within the last two bond issues to accomplish well over $400 million worth of facility upgrades. But that work has to continue. We have four-and-a-half million square feet of facilities in our district. It is a constant push every five years or so to continue doing more work to be able to upgrade those facilities.” 

Executive Editor Christine Temple contributed.