What is the history of Freeman School District Water?
Since 1955, the Freeman School District has operated district-owned wells to serve the entire Campus. Currently, there is one 50-gallon per minute well. The well and the well pump are located on the south end of the campus near the tennis courts and they operate the District’s one water right of 50 gallons per minute.
Freeman SD’s 50-gallon per minute well pump operates year-round and pumps water from the well to the Freeman Well House, located behind Freeman High School. Our water is run through an air stripper, which removes any impurities from the water. Our water is then stored in our three – 100,000-gallon water storage tanks. These storage tanks look like grain silos and are located next to the well house and behind the Freeman SD Maintenance and Grounds Shop. Our water is distributed campus-wide for drinking, restrooms, cooking, irrigation, and fire suppression.
During the irrigation season, from mid-May to mid-October, we face challenges to irrigate the school fields and grounds, especially as temperatures rise and the wind picks up during these warmer months. In order to meet the domestic and irrigation needs of the District, while still providing adequate water for fire suppression, Freeman SD has partnered with landscape architects, the Department of Ecology, the WA State Department of Drinking Water, irrigation and water experts, and field maintenance experts, to explore options to increase irrigation efficiency and plan for the future growth of the District.
The Freeman SD Board of Directors has approved exploring additional opportunities to assist us in preparing for the future. This includes the preparation of a Freeman School District Long Range Facilities Plan.
What is a Long-Range Facilities Plan and Why Does Freeman Need one?
A long-range facilities plan is designed to assess the state of the existing facilities in relation to the District's educational programs, enrollment trends, forecast and needs, capital maintenance and improvement financing, and projected facility demands for the next ten years.
The long-range facility plan aims to ensure that the community support and investments in the District's facilities are honored, protected, and utilized in ways that best achieve Freeman School District's Mission to prepare its students to be successful contributing community members with a sound educational foundation.
A proactive facility plan will ensure our facilities are maintained and developed in a manner that contributes to the identity and well-being of the Freeman community. This plan will project the required facilities and appropriate funding required by the school district and aims to be accomplished over a 10-year period in which enrollment is forecasted to increase in the Freeman community.
What is the history of the Freeman SD Facilities?
The Freeman SD has been an excellent steward of our finances while identifying and developing facilities that would best serve our students, staff, and community. Some of our significant improvements to the Freeman Campus include, but are not limited to:
- Construction of a 2-pod sewage lagoon treatment plant connected to our wetlands south of the campus
- Modernization of Freeman High School and Freeman Elementary
- Construction of a new Palouse Regional Transportation Cooperative (PRTC) building Upgrades to Freeman Middle School, including sealing the building, building a new roof, replacing the HVAC system and boiler systems and upgrading to LED lights
- Implementation of campus-wide safety and security upgrades
- Installation of asphalt surfaces to assist with field access
- Upgrades to our fields and creation of new field space
- Resurfacing of the tennis courts
- Installation of new football/soccer/track home bleachers
- Development of a drinking water purification system
- Development of a parking lot maintenance plan
Freeman SD has spent over $35 million in campus facility updates and upgrades over the past dozen years. Please see the attached Freeman Campus Modernization document, which gives you an overview of our campus facilities history for the past several decades.
What is Freeman Considering for our Water?
We are currently exploring our current water right with the WA State Department of Ecology. This includes investigating our current water use, whether we can have more than one well connected to one water right, and whether we are able to conduct variable pumping of water at different times of year (school year and summer). In addition, we are also exploring options for our water purification system.
What Future Facilities is Freeman Considering?
Freeman SD partnered with ALSC Architects to conduct a Study and Survey in 2021 to assist us with our Long-Range Facilities Planning. In addition to classroom space and infrastructure needs including water, we have explored additional facilities and space to prepare for future growth and expansion.
One main goal since the Freeman HS and Freeman Elementary Modernization has been to remove our portables. We haven’t been able to do that out of necessity to serve our students – we need the classroom space. Inclusive Transitional Kindergarten (ITK) is a preschool program offered by local school districts using state education funding. The new program is currently being housed in 1 ½ of the portables behind Freeman Middle School and down the hill from the elementary building. ITK programs have been developed specifically for 4-year-old children. They offer a high-quality early learning program to students with an unmet need that otherwise do not have access to early learning opportunities before kindergarten. Freeman School District currently serves 35 four-year-old Scotties and three-year-olds who receive services.
With the current water limitations of the district and considering our future growth, one option the district is exploring is the possibility of installing artificial turf to the football field. This could potentially save the district hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per year by not having to irrigate the field during summer months.
Another project possibly on the horizon includes updating the accessibility for persons with disabilities to get to the lower field complex. Presently, to get to the fields, you must park 100+ yards away and walk on a slight downhill gravel path to the complex area. Our goal is to provide safer access for our disabled spectators along with handicapped parking within close proximity to our lower baseball/soccer/softball field complex.