Still out as to build time, the next step has been taken in the Stanley-Boyd School District office relocation.
Reviewed and approved at the Feb. 24 school board meeting, the now 4,500 square foot addition will be paid for with Fund 46 capital improvement funds.
With all present Feb. 24 voting yes save Lanse Carlson (due to disappointment in not being shown alternatives), the relocation and remodel with an estimated total project cost of $2.2 to $2.5 million was set forth in more detail a week earlier, at the Feb. 17 School Board Conversation.
CESA 10 representative Tony Menard presented to the crowd composed mostly of school board or staff.
“Obviously It’s a cold night so we’ll try to move along to make sure everyone can get home, but we just wanted to provide information to the board and community members that are here,” he said.
Touching briefly on the elementary upgrades now completed, Menard moved to the district office relocation.
“We’re going to talk about project needs, and I can have the board members here discuss your thoughts on that too,” he said, “and then Mr. Koenig discuss his thoughts on it. We’ll review conceptual designs as they are right now, and then we’ll facilitate any comments.”
Moving to the project rationale, Menard shared the thought process.
“When we were going through this process early on, one of the main questions was how we can relocate the district office or move the district office to the exterior of the building, just because the district office has visitors regularly throughout the year and day and they had to go through the building.” Relocating the district office to the outside would help upgrade school security, it was shared.
Menard was followed by District Superintendent Jeff Koenig.
“After the referendum discussions we had with the community is the one thing that people were kind of clear on in support of was relocating the district office from inside the building,” Koenig said, “that was talked about, and it was all driven by school security.”
Also discussed was whether the building would be safer with the high school and middle school office where it was, a move for these being worked into the plan as well.
LHB representative Kevin Holm explained the location and layout of the proposed district office.
“Just a reference that the white portions are the existing spaces,” Holm said of the plans. “The tan/yellow spaces are circulation corridors to get around the building. The blue box is the district office location move, and the smaller box is the high school, middle school office.”
Because plans involved adding square footage there was a need for an additional firewall, achieved by a set of double doors near the end of a circulation corridor. Also included in the plans is an indoor ramp to be handicap accessible, with flat landing halfway to accommodate code requirements.
Board Member Lanse Carlson had a question for Holm.
“Is there a gap between those two sections?” he asked of the office relocation and pool area as shown in front view.
“No, that’s just the way - we didn’t photoshop the entire exterior wall of the building. What that’s showing is right now the grade is up and the grade will get pushed down along that side of the building,” Holm said. CESA 10 representative Menard then asked anyone else had questions.
“Any questions or comments that anyone might have?” he asked. Board President Denise Hoffstatter had an observation on the enclosed ramp.
“One thing is that the ramp—the cement—needs repair. So that cost right there won’t be—you won’t have to do that obviously, with the remodel.”
Liz Mertens from the high school office gave some thoughts on the doors.
“I dont’ know,” she said. “You’re ending up you’re going to be buzzing them in from the exterior. And then they’re going to be coming up and have to be buzzed in again. I guess face to face is better than the long distance where you see them at the bottom entryway.”
Kevin Holm gave feedback as well.
“Our recommendation is to set it up at each one of the doors,” he said of buzzing. “So that you could use it as a level of security. So you might have a videophone out at the main set of doors, so if you wanted to in the future, you could do that. When it’s not ten below zero, you could hold people outside before letting them in,” Holm said. A second access point nearer to the office could let people into the office area. The office area could also be closed off in case people coming in got agitated and needed to cool off before getting into the building.
School maintenance staff Mike Fazendin had a pool observation.
“One thing I don’t know if you’ve looked at,” he said. “For the pool we have liquid chlorine piped in. We might need to check and see how many feet that would be, because now you got multiple doors to go through to get to the basement.” At present the truck drives on the sidewalk to make the hose connection.
“So maybe there’s an opportunity to extend a fill tube further in that space,” Holm replied. “That’s a great point.”
Next up was board member Chad Verbeten, who shared his experience being approached at a community event.
“I will tell you that I was working at a community function and someone who knew I was on the board came up to me and made a couple of comments,” he said. A regular pool user buzzed into the building, the person had shared that they thought the high school office should be moved.
“Because they’re a regular pool user and buzzed into the building they felt the high school office should be moved to be more exterior but also to have two sets of eyes on that door,” Verbeten said. This would minimize the possibility of someone coming in on the heels of another person who was buzzed in, adding to security.
“He also explained that from his perspective as a taxpayer he doesn’t want the school to expend the fund to depletion.He also said ‘don’t go cheap,’ meaning if we’re going to do this to do it correctly. I think this is a balance between these two things, like Mrs. Hoffstatter said. If you don’t enclose the ramp, every so many years you’re going to have to replace the concrete. The concrete has to be replaced no matter what, so if you’re going to do something it makes sense to do it now. That concrete will last infinitely longer than exposed concrete. And concrete, I don’t even know what it is a yard anymore, but it’s not cheap.”
With more back and forth at the school board conversation Feb. 17, the school district office relocation is moving apace.