Faced with multiple pressing facility needs, the Warren County R-III School Board wants to develop a long-range master plan for capital projects that will lay out all of the district's priorities, related costs and financing options. The multiphased master plan will serve as a blueprint for addressing the school's key capital requirements and making sure all pieces of the picture come together as a cohesive unit, district officials said. The district's architectural consultants, Dickinson Hussman, will present an approach and cost estimate for the master plan at the next board meeting Dec. 10. The list of needs is substantial, ranging from improving accessibility for students with disabilities and alternative and early childhood special education space to gym construction, track and field repair and school security. At the top of the list, says Superintendent Dr. John Long, is construction of a chair lift at Daniel Boone Elementary to help students with disabilities move to and from the school's cafeteria. An elevator for accessibility also is needed at the school. Another key need is for an automatic dishwasher at Black Hawk Middle School, which has never had one. A vote on these immediate projects will be put before the board in December. Larger and more permanent facilities for early childhood special education and the district's alternative school - now housed in modular trailers - also are high on the list, as is consideration of a new high school gymnasium to address the school's growing enrollment and extracurricular needs. The current junior class totals nearly 230 students who will graduate in May 2010, stretching the facility's capacity for ceremonies to such a point that limitations on the number of friends and family attending will need to be imposed or holding ceremonies at a remote location such as the Family Arena in St. Charles. "Our community has said in the past that they want to have ceremonies here and that they want to be able to invite family and friends," said Dale Schowe, school board president. "But our current facility simply won't hold all the folks we know our seniors' families will want to have present." Also needed is a resurfacing of the high school track, said Long, noting that the current condition of the track is so bad that pieces are coming apart. Complicating that issue is the current state of the football field, which has been hurt by one of the wettest falls in recorded history and also has poor drainage and grass ill-suited to Midwest climate. Many on the school board agree the present hot-season Bermuda grass needs to be replaced with a cool-season grass such as fescue or artificial turf, which would enhance the field's year-round usage. "It makes no sense to embark on a new track before the field is addressed," said Schowe, "since the track would be torn up again as we work on the field." Schowe and other board members agreed that ultimately a master plan committee will be formed to include members of the community and that the process for input likely will include a series of open houses and other forums. Financing options will flow from the specific priorities and timetable in the approved master plan.