By Michael Glenn
Superintendent of USD 308 Dr. Dawn Johnson discussed the $109,000,000 bond resolution set to be voted on April 1, 2025, in an interview with The Hutchinson Tribune.
The four main projects that will take place if the bond passes is the construction of a unified 6th – 8th-grade middle school, a remodeling of HMS-8 to become a preschool and student services center, building additional gymnasiums and storm shelters in elementary schools and moving the soccer and baseball fields from 23rd and Severance, where the middle school is set to be located.
“We know the middle school is the big piece of that,” Johnson said. “In the case of the middle school, that is the bulk of this $109 million. I was told when they purchased that land at 23rd and Severance, it was to put a middle school there. They added on to HMS-7 and HMS-8 and over time, it just has not been affected or efficient.”
Johnson said before HMS-7 and HMS-8 came about as one-grade schools, USD 308 had Liberty and Sherman Middle Schools, which created a North-South divide in the district.
With a combined middle school, Johnson said it would give more incentive for parents to be more involved in middle school and for students to build positive relationships with staff and teachers.
Currently, Johnson said elementary schools provide a connection to the local community and neighborhood which can be lost during the four school changes from sixth to ninth grade.
“We move kids out of the environment where they’re connected to the community, moving to seventh grade, where there’s no PTO since kids are out of the system in a year,” Johnson said. “There’s not investment, and it brought out a lot of negatives.”
Neither current middle school building could host a combined middle school, and the only land large enough to construct a middle school that USD 308 owns is at the Salthawk Sports Complex, located near 23rd Avenue and Severance St.
The current soccer fields would be replaced at Don Michael Field, and Johnson said the athletic director of the high school is discussing with the Parks and Facilities director of the City of Hutchinson to find where to best relocate the baseball diamonds.
“The students would vacate HMS 7 and HMS 8,” Johnson said. “We’ve had folks say they’re interested in HMS-7. We would repurpose HMS-8 into a learning center and student service offices. The first floor would be the childhood center, and the second, third and fourth floors would be the service center.”
The district would sell HMS-7 as well as the current administration center, located at 1520 North Plum. The district would also sell Grandview and MidTown.
“Selling those buildings could save taxpayer money,” Johnson said. “We don’t have the deferred maintenance on those buildings anymore.”
The other main focus of the bond is kindergarten readiness. Johnson said the first floor of HMS-8 would become a preschool center.
The final part of the bond includes ensuring all six elementary schools in USD 308 have two gyms.
“Three of them have two gyms, three do not,” Johnson said. “If you have a two-gym school, you can have lunch and P.E. at the same time. We want to be able to make sure everyone has that capacity to have gym space.”
The gyms will also serve as storm shelters in the case of a natural disaster.
“As those gyms become FEMA storm shelters, we’ve talked about should a very catastrophic tornado head our way, we want to open those shelters to the neighborhoods,” Johnson said.
