The Pattonville Board of Education on March 9 approved a contract with Ittner Cordogan Clark Group, an architectural firm, to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of district buildings and assist Pattonville in developing a new, district-wide facilities master plan. The contract was approved for $86,400 plus reimbursable expenses. 

Pattonville selected Ittner after the district’s facilities committee reviewed proposals from several architectural firms. Ittner has assisted several other school districts in the St. Louis region and across Missouri with school facilities planning. 

Ittner outlined a process for developing a new facilities plan for Pattonville. The process would include an assessment of the condition of Pattonville buildings along with a space needs analysis before the end of the current school year. Ittner representatives would also meet with planning committees, building staff, parents and students to help develop the plan. Project lists, cost estimates and conceptual designs would be developed for presentation to the school board next fall.

Pattonville has been able to address a number of critical needs in the district via zero tax rate increase bond issues and recent upgrades of mechanical and lighting systems. However, future enrollment projections indicate the district may need additional capacity for approximately 300 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Depending on the outcome of the 2021 facilities planning process, the district may ask voters to approve another zero tax rate increase bond issue in 2022.

Every five or six years, Pattonville updates its facilities plan in order to address building needs for learning purposes and to keep its aging facilities maintained and in good repair. The last facilities master plan was completed in 2016, and a zero tax rate increase bond issue was approved by voters in April 2017 to fund updates and improvements included in the plan. As promised to voters during bond issues in 2006, 2010 and 2017, Pattonville has maintained its debt service levy - the portion of its tax rate that can only be used for paying off bond issue debt - at 49 cents per $100 of assessed value.