Dark bronze, unless there’s a price difference. That was the preference expressed by the Stanley-Boyd School Board at the Monday, Sept. 15 board conversation meeting with LHB Architects of Superior regarding a proposed district office relocation.
The new entrance and district office proposed for Stanley-Boyd would seek to improve school security, set to begin next spring if approved. Plans for the proposed district office relocation are being administered by CESA 10, with the project itself set to be paid for with Fund 46 Capital Improvement Funds.
LHB gave more project details at its Sept. 15 appearance in the high school library.
Presented by LHB Architectural Director Kevin Holm and estimated at $2.34 million once built, the plans give a glimpse both inside and outside the proposed new construction. Now one month out from formalizing approval for bids, the district office relocation plans as presented Monday saw slight changes over previous versions.
In the first place, there is an extra egress door at top, allowing for an extra exit if needed but still within the larger corridor area. The doors closing off the elementary school area will have magnetic locks, with other plan features either remaining the same or seeing slight adjustments.
A main corridor will still extend north to south with locked north doors during the school day and visitors buzzed in through the high school office, relocated to the present site of the community room. The interior slope of the main corridor meanwhile has been reduced from prior plans to less than 5 percent, with no landing in the middle.
Across the hallway from the relocated high school office and adjacent to the pool area will be the relocated district office, without larger building access but allowing visitors to conduct business. Several smaller offices, a workroom, two conference rooms and a vault will be included in the larger district office area.
As for the exterior, there were options, from an outside resembling the present building exterior, to one matching the present window frames, to still another incorporating school colors.
The board opted for the window frame option, known as dark bronze.
“I like the first one but I can live with the second one,” board member Chad Verbeten shared of matching the present exterior versus dark bronze, presented in ‘bronze panel’ and ‘bronze vertical’ options. Dark bronze was held to offer a good contrast, while options featuring orange in large quantities on the outside wall received a cool response from school board members.
The presentation Monday allows LHB to prepare for final offering next month, before approval for seeking bids or construction begins. The district office relocation would be paid for with Fund 46 Capital Improvement savings, the estimated $2.34 million as at present deemed a little high.
“Brian and I spoke this afternoon, and I said it has to get under $2 million,” district superintendent Jeff Koenig said of CESA 10 representative Brian Antczak and project cost. Antczak said that homework would have to be done to bring the project within that $2 million figure, but that contractors were hungry.
Bids would be sought this fall, with construction next year.
Also in process but separate from the proposed new entrance is a parking lot update. Plans to take place after the district office relocation is complete would see a new parking lot island and new asphalt laid on the east side of the parking lot, with increased parking stalls and a portion of grass on the east ceded to parking space.
The school board meets regularly on the fourth Monday of the month at 7:00 p.m. in the high school library. The public is invited. No final decisions were made Monday.