Photo courtesy of the Christian County Headliner News
When students in this Christian County community return to school this year, they’ll have two more classrooms in a new building that also will double as a school and community storm shelter for the inevitable Ozarks severe-weather seasons.
The more than 4,000-square-foot building will be able to house all of the district’s students, faculty and staff and, in fact, can hold up to 661 people if a tornado warning sounds during a school sports event or other situations where community residents may need shelter as well. Most of the time two of the additional rooms will be used as a science classroom and a multi-purpose classroom and the third area, which is much larger, will serve as a welcome center and entry way to the existing gymnasium and the present high school.
But it’s taken a lot of perseverance to get to the construction work now underway. The district was at risk of forfeiting more than a half million dollars in federal funds for the project until an innovative partnership closed the funding gap to allow the $800,000 project to move forward.
The Chadwick School Board had received a $515,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a $73,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But the project still needed about $200,000 in local matching funds to take advantage of the federal money. In November 2008, the district proposed a no-tax increase bond issue; it failed to win a 4/7ths majority by one vote – two on a recount.
After media reports about the photo-finish election, the Community Foundation of the Ozarks approached Chadwick Schools’ Co-Superintendents Drs. Bill and Tanna Wheeler about using the CFO’s new Mission-Related Investment Program to close the gap.
CFO President Brian Fogle said the project was a good fit for the Fund, which offers low-interest loans for community betterment projects that can’t obtain traditional financing. The CFO Board of Directors has committed up to 2 percent of the CFO’s assets to the “double-bottom line” of investing in enterprises that produce both financial and social returns for Ozarks communities, instead of investing assets solely in financial markets.
“When I saw they were at risk of losing about $600,000 in federal funding, it seemed that this was an ideal project for the goals of our new mission-related investment effort,” Fogle said.
Bill Wheeler said Chadwick qualified for the federal grants based on the past experience and high likelihood of severe weather events in Missouri. The construction work includes extra-deep footings and additional rebar reinforcement to withstand winds of up to 250 mph.
“We don’t have really enough safe places for our kids here and when we have the tornado shelter, it’s going to be really comforting to just give the signal to go to the shelter,” he said. “I feel confident we can get every person in the school into the shelter in less than two minutes. These are not just freak occurrences. Research and statistical data predict that the Chadwick community is likely to be in the path of a tornado sometime in the future.”
This isn’t the district’s first innovation. Bill Wheeler, who retired as superintendent of Reeds Spring, and his wife, Tanna, who retired as assistant superintendent of the Dallas County School District, are believed to be the first married co-superintendents in Missouri. They are starting their fifth year and as proud as they are to have this new building under construction, Bill Wheeler is quick to point out the district’s record of student achievement.
Chadwick is one of six schools in Missouri to receive the 2009-10 Gold Star Award. It also is one of six Missouri Gold Star Schools to be nominated by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for a national Blue-Ribbon Award.
“The Blue Ribbon Award is the highest academic honor awarded to schools by the U.S. Department of Education,” Bill Wheeler said. “It takes a total team effort to produce the academic achievement necessary to receive these honors. We have an excellent Board of Education, an outstanding staff, and motivated, hard-working students. It is very pleasing to me to see our school receive these academic awards.
“I want to thank Mr. Fogle, Mr. Gary Funk and the Community Foundation of the Ozarks for providing the link needed to place the project in motion. Soon, the students and staff at Chadwick School can be assured that they will have safe shelter should a tornado or high-velocity straight winds strike our campus,” he added.
