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YouTube videos discuss $19.11M bond
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · January 19, 2017
“I really wanted to have a conversation with a lot of people,” West Branch School Board President Mike Colbert said, so he produced three videos to explain the school addition project and uploaded them to social media sites.
Two videos show architectural drawings of the exterior and interior plans for West Branch High School and Hoover Elementary in an effort to absorb pupils from West Branch Middle School, a project that could run between $20 million and $21 million.
The third video explains how the school district plans to pay for the work over 20 years, should voters approve a $19.11 million increase in property taxes, how that increase effects property tax rates and how much each property owner might contribute per year.
“For the elementary and high school plans –- to give someone a set of diagrams or drawings and expect them to reach a conclusion that matched our vision seemed like a stretch,” Colbert said in an e-mail interview. “I wanted a way to walk through the plans and show them the proposed changes and given an understanding of ‘Why’ and what other options were considered.”
He said not everybody may be able to attend a community forum, so he “hoped the videos could be another avenue to get ACCURATE information at a time convenient for them.”
• Hoover Elementary video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csnRd6VvNTI or search “WBCSD Bond Issue – Elementary Proposal” on YouTube.
The seven-minute video already had 259 views when the Times last checked. In it, Colbert talks about: Moving the main entrance, implementing a controlled, security entrance that passes through the principal’s office, what will undergo new construction and what will be remodeled.
• West Branch High School video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAlzyrE0sTc or search “WBCSD Bond Issue – High School” on YouTube.
The 10-minute video counted 162 views when the Times checked on it. In it, the school board president talks about: A controlled security entrance, two morning/afternoon drop offs, an events entrance near the new gymnasium that also serves the proposed auditorium, and how the addition will stretch across the front of the existing building.
Colbert also discusses how the kitchen will turn into a concession stand, how the project builds new classrooms, library, band room, student lounge/commons area, small-group lab space, lunch room, kitchen and second concession stand.
Also, viewers will see that the middle school classrooms are called “learning studios,” and the renovated library will include four “Technology Enhanced Active Learning” classrooms.
Colbert spent a few minutes discussing the 700-seat auditorium, saying the school board and the committee that developed the 15-year facilities plan with this addition at the heart of it, “envision this to be large enough to hold us for whatever we wanted to do.”
That includes moving elementary concerts to what will be a middle/high school building, moving graduation out of the gymnasium, and moving show choir back to a stage setting.
“If you’ve been in our current auditorium, it’s dated, it’s very small,” he narrates. “We can’t even run middle school band concerts through there – they have to do them in shifts.”
• Finances video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlw5M86FfTk or search “WBCSD Bond Issue – Why? How?” In YouTube.
The 20-minute video has 105 views when the Times last checked. Colbert starts with about seven minutes of narration, where he talks about the elementary school’s “overcrowded” lunchroom, how a hallway connecting the middle school and elementary school “splits the playground” and the lack of relocation spaces to hold middle school pupils in case of a lockdown.
He then shows charts and graphs to help explain the financial aspects of the property tax increase.
Colbert argues that it is “not practical” to drive teachers to the middle school to teach due to the time between classes, and that there is no room to host additional classes.
“We believe we are bringing a plan to you that addresses many of our needs and are fewer on the wants,” he states in the video. “We don’t believe we’re bringing a grand — a Cadillac, if you will — of a plan.”
Colbert told the Times said he makes similar videos for the college courses he teaches to explain technical details.
“This seemed like a parallel situation so, on a whim, I thought I’d give it a try,” he wrote in his e-mail to our questions. “Early reviews were positive so I released them. Feedback from voters, so far, has been positive as well.”
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