Kane: Early Childhood Center
80% of the construction funding, and thus 20% of the overall bond funding, goes toward an early childhood center at Richard Kane Elementary School, replacing several old portable classrooms still in use at that site. Kane is the last of the elementary schools to still have "temporary" portable classrooms, which has forced Pre-K and Kindergarten students, for over a decade, to bundle up and go outside repeatedly throughout the day to visit the cafeteria, gym, library, etc. in all sorts of weather. These portables are less secure than the main building and students have to go outside to reach a tornado shelter.
The new center would be an eight-classroom pod in the same style as the pods built in recent years at three other district schools, becoming part of the main building. There's a news article with more details.
Kane Elementary is NOT in the 100-year flood plain. Kane is likely to flood only once every 500 years. Even the record flood of 1986 only did $40,318 of damage to the multimillion dollar facility.
Click the concept rendering to enlarge it
Click any image to enlarge it
Kane elementary still has very young students being taught in old portable buildings. One was purchased in 1994, so it is 18 years old, and two larger ones were purchased and put into use there in 2000, so they are 12 years old. 12 years and 18 years are hardly "temporary".
The 2007 bond issue provided new Early Childhood Centers at Ranch Heights, Wayside, and Wilson. Click the image above to see a shot of the center at Wilson.
Click the image below to see the three old portables tucked behind Richard Kane Elementary School.
RUMOR MILL
Some might think the Caney River flooded Kane in 2007, but the water damage to the building on April 30, 2007 was caused by a broken pipe. A six-inch water pipe for the fire sprinkler system broke beneath the building and classes were relocated through early May while the building was cleaned up.
The Caney River has only flooded Kane Elementary once and odds are 500-to-1 against Kane flooding in any given year.
KANE ELEMENTARY & THE FLOODPLAIN
Kane is NOT in the 100-year floodplain. The school, and the proposed Early Childhood Center, lie in the 500-year floodplain. So in a given year there is only a 0.2% chance of it flooding. The only time the Caney River flooded Kane was in the record flood of 1986 when about 10% of Bartlesville was inundated. Even that flood only did $40,318 in damage to the multimillion dollar facility.
So it does not make sense to abandon the school, especially since finding another site to serve schoolchildren living between the Caney River and the railroad tracks would be problematic, likely requiring eminent domain to force the purchase of multiple existing properties to be cleared for a new school.
Patrons have supported adding onto this facility before: the 1993 bond issue added a classroom to Kane, only seven years after the record flood.