Members of the Chilkat Valley Preschool board agreed Monday to pursue purchase of a modular structure to be located on the Haines School grounds as the preschool’s new home.

They’ll also push the Haines Borough Assembly for reconsideration next week of its recent action terminating the school’s lease of the borough’s Human Resources Building effective June, as the move into a new structure is likely to extend beyond that deadline.

The group is working with consultant Greg Stuckey on funding options.

“We’re not begging to stay. We just need more time,” preschool administrator Renee Hoffman said after the meeting. During the meeting, board chair Alissa Henry said the group realistically may need 18 months to raise funds, before purchasing anything.

Members said they’d be attending upcoming school board and assembly meetings.

On Monday, Hoffman presented board members with an estimate for a 1,000-square-foot modular structure for $130,000, not including delivery from Seattle and construction of a foundation.

Preschool board members also discussed – and ruled out – buying the former Elks Lodge building and property, and seeking an addition to the Haines School. Previous discussions have involved building an addition to the Haines Senior Center.

“I feel like we should get something new,” said Henry. “Not another, old, crappy building where we’re using somebody else’s space and is something we have to do a lot of work on to use.”

Member Kathryn Cheney said the size of the Elks Lodge also would require the school to find another tenant to share the space. Hoffman said the lodge and two pieces of property there might be acquired for $150,800.

Members talked briefly about asking for an addition to the Haines School. Area on the school’s west side was reserved for a possible addition. But they expressed concerns about preschoolers mixing with older students.

“It could be less expensive to run it attached to the school, but I like the idea of our own, protected space,” said Sara Chapell, a Haines Borough school board member and former preschool president. “There’s a big difference between a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old.”

Chapell suggested siting the modular unit on a patch of grass between Main Street and the Haines School’s primary school wing.

Moving the school is complicated by state licensing requirements that the school provide 35 square feet of interior space per child and 840 square feet outdoors.

During an interview, preschool board members said they also have investigated seeking a shared arrangement at the Head Start building, but the two schools share the same, morning hours. Holding an afternoon program in the Head Start building also would be difficult, as dismissal at the Haines School would create conflicts for staff, they said.

Head Start regional manager Judy Goenett of Haines said her program’s building – a former church near the intersection of Old Haines Highway and Main Street – doesn’t have space to hold another program, including office room. Head Start, a federally funded program that primarily serves low-income families and youngsters with disabilities, has 17 students enrolled this year. The program is capped locally at a maximum of 20 students, due in part to the size of its building.

Head Start and the private preschool shared the Human Resources Building until about 12 years ago, when requirements of the federal program forced Head Start into a new space.

Administrator Hoffman said the preschool has no operational problems with their space. “Right now it’s doable. It would be great to have new flooring, but we make the best with what we’ve got. Weatherization is probably the biggest need.”

Chilkat Valley Preschool has 20 students, up from 14 last year. Tuition at the private school is $250 per month. The school is open four hours per day, four days per week. The Haines Borough maintains the building and replaced a boiler in it two months ago. The school, which is the aging building’s only tenant, covers utilities.

Preschool board members say they expect 24 students next year, and enrollment will be capped there. Because Head Start has enrollment limitations, some families may be hard-pressed to find a preschool opening next year, Cheney said.

“We’re a small town. It shouldn’t be competitive to get your kids into school,” Cheney said.

Borough public facilities director Carlos Jimenez said the borough was required to put the new boiler into the Human Resources Building due to a state inspection. The project cost $10,000 and the boiler would be salvaged if the building needed to be demolished, he said.

The building has rot issues, a leaky roof and small code violations, such as steep stairs, Jimenez said.

In an email last week, borough assembly member Debra Schnabel said that if the preschool “can report a plan of action to the assembly that is scheduled, but cannot be achiseved by the start of the program fall term, I would be willing to consider an extension of the lease due to the existing circumstances.”  

In an email message to KHNS News and Chapell, Haines Borough Mayor Stephanie Scott said she didn’t see how the Human Resources Building could “pass muster by the state inspector unless our own facilities director’s assessment is wrong; or unless the state inspector has no interest in the state of the building itself.”

“I am appalled that it is acceptable to house such young children in a building that may contain asbestos and lead paint and whose roof is rotten – at least in places,” Scott said.

Scott said she had asked superintendent Byer to take up the preschool issue. She also said she has pleaded with preschool parents to plead with the school district.  “I have said that preschool education (its need, its importance) should be discussed and committed to by the school board, not the borough assembly.”

Scott said it’s inaccurate to depict the borough as heartless and incommunicative, as the lease issue has been in the works for six weeks.