I hope everyone is having a wonderful week.
Thank you! The results of our election will have a positive impact on our community for many generations. The school district will be very busy in the next several months, working with our architect and construction management team to build our new school. The architect has completed 30% of the design plans. In a normal situation, the architect would not have started until the bond was supported by the community. In our situation, the Board of Education approved the architect to begin working on the 7-12 grade portion of the building. With the passage of the bond, the Board approved the architect to begin working on the kindergarten through sixth grade portion of the building. There are some portions of the plans that are further along. As an example, the plans to complete the dirt work and foundational structures are nearing completion so they can go to bid early this fall and construction can begin before winter. The district, architect, and construction management team will begin looking at the best phasing plan of construction to determine how construction will progress.
This week is the beginning of the new school year, with school beginning on Wednesday. The teachers returned officially on Friday, Aug. 16 for staff in-service. The staff attended a presentation organized by the Prevention Board. This was a very impactful afternoon for our staff and the district thanks the Prevention Board for organizing this presentation.
For the most part, the operations at both the Elementary and Junior-Senior High School will remain the same as how we ended the 2023-24 school year. The building situation should be more stable than the previous year with the move to the modular classrooms. There will be some changes as we move through the year. Work is progressing on the gym and commons. This is mostly electrical work to allow practices in the gym. We are looking at an early September timeframe of when those spaces will be reopened. The gym will probably be open for practices only at first, but we are hopeful to return to having activities in the gym. The demolition of the Commons area and construction of the elementary portion of the new building will be part of the upcoming decisions that will need to be made by the board and team. The new construction will also affect parking during construction. The district will work through the changes throughout the year and continue to communicate those changes with the community.
Go Buffaloes!