Rib Lake schools add make-up day to calendar

Thanks to last week’s late-season snow day, students in the Rib Lake School District will have their school year extended.

At a special board meeting Monday night, Rib Lake School Board members approved making the half-day scheduled for May 31 a full day and then adding a halfday on June 1 shifting the end of the school year by one day.

In addition to approving the make-up day, board members also looked at options for the new accessible elementary playground project. The district received funds from the Fulcrum Foundation and area businesses as donations. According to district administrator Travis Grubbs, they are continuing to work on community fundraising to help cover the cost of the project.

He said the initial plan called for about $270,000 in cost and the district currently has $205,000 raised in donations. Grubbs noted the most expensive part was the poured in place surface of the playground.

Grubbs said the district went back to the playground designers to see if there were any ways to reduce the price. He said they were able to reconfigure some of the design into a different shape and bring the overall price down to $230,000.

While the district is still seeking community support and donations for the project, board members voted to move forward to begin the work this summer so that it will be ready for the start of the school year this fall.

Grubbs also updated the board in regard to the facility upgrades that have been proposed. At the April 13 school board meeting representatives from Excel Engineering presented six potential plans for work throughout all the buildings in the district. From board feedback for those options, the engineers whittled it down to three designs that will be presented at the May 3 community listening session.

According to Grubbs, the district has come to the end of its current 10-year maintenance plan and was able to pay off debt early. He said as part of the facility study the district identified the maintenance projects that will be needed in the next 10 years and incorporated them into the proposed building plans.

High on the list for all the plans is connecting the high school and middle school buildings.

Currently, students and staff regularly walk from one building to another across the often-icy parking lot. This has raised not only security concerns, but also safety concerns. Grubbs noted that they have had both students and teachers fall because of ice there.