The Fountain Hills Unified School District (FHUSD) Governing Board approved the job order contracting for the McDowell Mountain Elementary School media center renovation project on Wednesday, Aug. 16.

The measure passed 3-2, with members Libby Settle and Madicyn Reid dissenting. It is estimated to start in October and take around three months to complete.

The project logistics were provided in the Board packet ahead of the business meeting, and representatives from CORE Construction, Orcutt Winslow and the FHUSD financial team presented details related to the project before the members voted. Orcutt Winslow is the architectural firm behind the designs, CORE Construction is the project manager and Tyler Moore of True Professionals LLC provided insight into FHUSD’s budget.

The district budgeted $2.5 million for consolidation projects last year, and according to Moore, FHUSD has over $1 million in capital reserves that was carried forward this year. The reserves can cover unforeseen emergencies on campuses, such as the water main break at the high school last year, and they are independent from the results of the bond election this fall.

The library renovation project will turn the McDowell Mountain library into a planetarium-themed room in hopes of making reading more fun and engaging for students. Since the elementary school moved to the former middle school campus during consolidation, the library will be the first room in sight after walking through the front doors, and the immersive dome will be the focal point of the room.

Most virtual reality (VR) headsets are not made for children under the age of 13, but the dome projection system will provide the same kind of virtual reality content safely to a whole class. The dome will be set to look like a moon on the outside most of the time, but teachers can change the inside and outside projections to teach kids lessons on other subjects, like U.S. history or dinosaurs.

“We looked at ocean, we looked at space, we looked at sky, and we landed on this really because of the connection with the town and the Dark Skies community,” Superintendent Dr. Cain Jagodzinski said. “I thought it was a good connection back to Fountain Hills. I sat on the original planning committee of the [International] Dark Sky [Discovery Center] with Joe Bill, and it was something we felt really connected us back to our community. I’ve always said, I think the schools need to be the centerpiece of the community, and this is a great opportunity to do that.”

Member Reid questioned if the project was wise at this time and worried it was redundant with the Dark Sky discovery center planned for construction in the Town’s civic center. She asked what other themes were considered, and her concerns of redundancy were echoed in public comments by Nancy Ordowski and Crystal Cavanaugh.

“Although it’s a nice design, the expense and financial commitment for the completed planetarium library project seems to be excessive at this time.” Cavanaugh said. “We’re getting a Dark Sky Discovery Center. It’s in the works, and it’s expected to be built right here for all age levels to be enjoyed.”

Reid implied the Discovery Center would be built next year, but the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization is still fundraising and has not announced a construction start date. The multi-year fundraising campaign did receive a significant boost in May 2023, when the Arizona state budget provided $10 million to the project, bringing the total fundraising to $18.5 million of the roughly $25 million estimated costs.

The project is described on the Dark Sky Discovery Center website, darkskycenter.org, as “an international attraction in Fountain Hills that will benefit the entire state of Arizona.” Part of the nonprofit’s goal is to create an observatory with the largest telescope in the Greater Phoenix area andbuild a state-of-the-art hyperspace planetarium.

The projected costs of the elementary school planetarium renovations are $594,393. There are contingency and allowances built into the price, but CORE Construction needs written consent from the Board to use those funds and will return all unused contingency funds.

Member Settle said she would vote no because there are significant repairs that need to be done elsewhere and a discrepancy between the last two quotes from CORE Construction made her hesitant.

CORE quoted the district $718,337 in the rough order of magnitude budget submitted to FHUSD on July 25, but quoted $594,393 during the presentation on Aug. 16. Jagodzinski explained they were different because the dome is paid for by donations and he asked CORE to reflect that in a new quote.

During the vote, Reid motioned to table the renovations and “go back to the drawing board.” No member seconded her motion, and then member Dana Saar moved to approve the project as presented.

The motion passed 3-2, but the Board did vote 5-0 to table the discussion on the indoor playground for a later meeting.

The next School Board meeting will be Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 6 p.m. in the FHUSD Learning Center. All Board meetings are recorded and livestreamed on the FHUSD YouTube channel.