They have tried before and failed, yet the Gering School Board appears poised to ask voters to approve a bond measure to replace the aging Lincoln Elementary School.

Monday night, members of the school board met at a workshop to discuss the idea of replacing or remodeling the 80-year-old Lincoln School. While no estimate of costs are presently available, district superintendent Don Hague estimated a new 45,000 square foot Lincoln building would cost between $5.85 and $6.75 million. Talk among the board members Monday evening pushed that number as high as $9 million.

Members of the board believe it is far too early in the process to determine how much a new school might cost.

“People have to know what it’s going to cost. I’m not going to vote for it if you can’t tell me what it’s going to cost me,” said board member Alan Doll. “Nothing is set in stone. This is all preliminary work and the numbers given are an engineer’s or an architect’s estimate. No contract has been signed or anything.”

The Gering school district has been experiencing growing pains since 1993 when they attempted to pass a bond for $7.8 million to build two new elementary schools and upgrade other building across the district. The bond failed 1,133 to 1,036.

The board tried again in November 1993 for a $5.9 million bond to replace McKinley and Lincoln Elementary Schools but voters turned down their proposal 1,461 to 722.

Again in September 1996 the district lost a bond issue for $2.9 million to build additions on Northfield and Geil Elementary Schools.

Recently the district lost a $14.8 million bond issue in September 2007 for a new elementary to replace Lincoln, build a new vocational building at the high school, add science rooms to the high school as well as weight rooms, locker rooms, a wrestling room and the construction of a freshman academy.

Voters denied the bond 1,322 to 878.

The board said they did not see much public support at recent public meetings for remodeling Lincoln Elementary. The most economical step appears to be the demolition of Lincoln and building a new school.

Board member B.J. Peters said it would cost $4 million to remodel the present Lincoln school and it would still remain limited for use.

In a straw poll all school board members said replacing Lincoln would be the best option verses remodeling. The board will take official action next month as the decision on whether they plan to build a new school at the Lincoln site will be on their agenda.

If the board goes forward with a concept to replace Lincoln Elementary, it appears the measure would be on a Nov. 2, 2010 ballot based on a printed timeline presented to the board by Hague.

“We will still have 1,000 no votes a year from now even if the school costs a dollar to build. We have to get a lot more people than just parents on board with this,” said Peters.

The reason the board keeps trying to replace Lincoln is the school is the oldest in the district at 80 years of age. The district has not built a new school since the 1970s.

“I certainly hope that we’re going to be successful this time because we need to be. We’ve got kids in a building that is woefully inadequate. People who are connect with Gering Public Schools or have kids in that school, know that building needs replaced – there’s no question. It’s just coming up with the right venue for them to vote for,” said board member Mike Brunner.

Board member Pam O’Neal said Lincoln does need replaced but she’s concerned about leaving children in the old school while the new school is being built on the same site.

“I want some reassurance that yes - that will be the case instead of hoping to do that and finding out they can’t. Then we won’t look credible because we haven’t been able to do what we said we were going to do,” O’Neal told her fellow board members.

Peters responded with, “We have to do what we promise to do. We need to know up front and I still don’t know if I want to keep the kids there even if we’re going to demolish that building. We nail down the total cost before we go into it. We nail down what we’re going to do with the kids. The whole process has to be black and white before we move forward.”