Southeast of Saline Board Votes 6-0 to Oppose KDOT's Current School Entrance Plan
The USD 306 Southeast of Saline Board of Education on Monday voted 6-0 to oppose the Kansas Department of Transportation's current plan for a new entrance to the school from K-4.
Board member Skylar Hanson moved a resolution saying the board's primary responsibility is the safety of students, staff, families and community members, and that the proposed sloped grade would increase traffic hazards, especially for young drivers, and reduce the overall safety of the entrance. The resolution formally opposes the modifications as currently presented and directs Superintendent Ted Brown to send a copy to KDOT officials and the district's legal counsel. A second was made, and the motion carried 6-0. Board President Justin Knopf said the resolution applied to the proposal as it stood that night, after KDOT officials said they would take Monday's comments back and consider changes.
The discussion filled the board room at the district office in Gypsum. Knopf recognized guests including State Treasurer Steven Johnson, Sen. Scott Hill and his wife, Lynette, Rep. Steven Howe and his son, Theodore, and Rep.-elect Luci Larson and her husband, David. KDOT officials at the meeting included Deputy Secretary and State Transportation Engineer Greg Schieber, Director of Engineering and Design Scott King, District 2 Engineer Brent Terstriep and Area Engineer Karlton Place of the Ellsworth office.
During the public forum, Adam Austin of the Kipp area, Dwight Conley of Gypsum, Jim Hanson, a former board member from Assaria, Transportation Director Stephanie Hungate, Zach Short of Assaria, and Sen. Hill urged KDOT to flatten the entrance and put student safety first. Several speakers said a steep slope would be especially dangerous in winter for school buses and teenage drivers. Hungate, who also spoke as a parent, said more than 800 people use the driveway on a typical school day, not counting activities, and that paving on the project began two months earlier than the timeline the district had been given. She asked that work on the main entrance not take place during the school year and that the district get a clear plan for temporary access. Hanson asked for a level entrance and suggested keeping the existing highway as a frontage road with exits to the east and west.
Knopf reviewed the district's earlier talks with KDOT. He said an initial plan showed a grade of just under 8%, later reduced to about 5.8% and then to about 4%, and that the district had asked KDOT to add elevation to the new roadway. He said paving began before the two sides had reconvened, and that he and Brown spoke by video last Friday with Transportation Secretary Calvin Reed about that miscommunication.
Schieber apologized for the early paving, which he said was never intended to happen before Monday's meeting, and described it as an internal miscommunication at KDOT. He said the agency would not rebuild the main entrance during the school year, would have a temporary entrance to the east in place before that work begins, and would work with the district on timing, including a possible start around June 1. He said Reed had committed to better communication, and that KDOT would go back to its design team, brief Reed, and reach back to the district within a week, while holding the contractor in the meantime. He said the agency had improved safety along the reconstructed highway but had not adequately addressed the school entrance, and that KDOT can make improvements.
King described the current design as a 3.8% grade with a roughly 40-foot landing at about 0% where a bus would sit at the intersection. He said the difference in elevation between the parking lot and the proposed roadway is about 10 1/2 to 11 feet, and that the main line as now paved is about 1 foot higher than the plan discussed at the last meeting. He said KDOT generally tries to get about 2% at an intersection, though rural entrance criteria can allow slopes of up to 8%, and that raising the roadway further would reduce sight distance on the highway and could require more right of way and added work on drainage structures. When Knopf asked whether a further raise could cost as much as 100 feet of sight distance, King said it could be up to that, depending on the details.
After a recess for a string-line demonstration in the parking lot, Knopf told the board the current plan would extend into the existing parking lot farther than the district's present easement and farther than the earlier plan, which he said would require the district's permission. He said KDOT wanted to start a 2% grade near the north end of the painted parking stalls in order to reach the 3.8% grade with the 1-foot increase in elevation.
KDOT did not present a final revised design Monday. Officials said they would work through options and report back.
