Rib Lake board approves changes for construction projects

The referendum project connecting Rib Lake’s middle and high school buildings is proceeding on schedule and under budget.

At the September 24 school board meeting, district administrator Travis Grubbs reported that the district is on schedule to have the fitness center portion of the project completed by the middle of October. “Our goal is to have it open to the public the week of the 27th of October,” Grubbs said.

Grubbs said the projects are coming along smoothly and on schedule with staff and contractors working to minimize the impact to students. He said the next big change will be when the new addition is completed and there is a shift to that space and work begins on the current high school gym to convert it to a performing arts space.

As with recent meetings, Grubbs presented board members with change orders for a variety of items that came up during construction. In some cases these were additional work found that needed to be done while others, are opportunities for cost savings.

Change orders approved by the board included:

• Middle exterior gym wall tuckpointing work that will prevent water infiltration during hard rains. Grubbs noted that during the construction it was discovered that previous tuckpointing had not been done correctly.

• Installation of an eye wash station in the woodshop. Currently there is a temporary mobile eye wash station. “This is a must have,” Grubbs said.

• Middle school science room additional plumbing to connect the new plumbing fixtures to the existing plumbing in the building.

• The addition of stage acoustic tectum panels to improve sound quality in the space..

• Installation of hose bib for rooftop units which will allow for cleaning of filters without needing to take them from the roof. Grubbs noted this was a relatively cheap thing to install now that will have benefit in future.

• Installation of a fitness center mirror. The changes total $58,961 with it coming from the project contingency funds. In addition, there were allowances for the east parking lot undercuts, temporary air units, partitions, sidewalks and floor protection totaling $76,236 — of that total $59,543 was from the parking lot work. Grubbs said they continually are looking at areas to reduce expense, he noted they were able to swap out a kitchen kettle to a different equivalent model and save $12,000 in the process.

“On the whole we are staying under our allowances,” Grubbs said.

He alerted board members that they are hoping to move up a planned upgrade to the electrical panel. Due to the long lead time on this type of equipment, Grubbs said the district purchased the new one last winter with the goal of having it arrive this fall. The original plan was that during winter break the district would shut off the power to the middle school and get it switched over. However, with the equipment now expected to ship on September 30, they are looking to move forward the timelines and take advantage of a teacher work day of school being off on October 17 and have the work done earlier.

Grubbs said there would be shifting in the parentteacher conferences on Oct. 16 to allow the power to be shut off at the end of the school day on that day and have the electrical crews work around the clock to have it switched over and ready when school reopens on September 20.

Grubbs said an advantage of moving up the timeline on the electrical switch-over is having less issues with cold weather. With the power off, the heat will also be off to the building. Grubbs said having it off over winter break would mean the district would spend a lot of money to make sure things did not freeze. A mid-October switchover reduces the chance of problems with cold weather. “I am hopeful that will be the case,” he said.

Grubbs told board members to expect more change orders to be brought to them in coming months as the project continues to move along. He said they are looking at the chiller at the middle school and what changes to that system could look like, exterior sidewalks, stage opening and possible work on the roof of the current high school gym. He said the high school gym roof is still under warranty, but it also leaks and they are looking at ways to address that as the construction project continues.

In other construction project action, board members approved budgeted furniture purchases for $21,000 with a lot of this being new furniture and items for the new school office. In the new gym space, the teams will sit on chairs rather than on the bleachers, Grubbs presented a design for what the folding chairs, with school logos on them, will looking like. In addition he showed the design of a new 12-foot scorer’s table that will have the same design as the one that will be on the wall of the gym.

Grubbs noted the quote they received was for a single rack of 36 chairs, but recommended the board approved getting two racks, a total of 72 chairs, noting the school has the storage space for them and they would be useful for event seating for activities. Board members agreed and approved spending $12,320 for 72 chairs and $5,990 for a 12-foot scorer table.

In other business, board members:

• Reviewed the results of the data meeting held by staff. Elementary principal Jon Dallmann said it was a good opportunity to dig into the data and identify what they needed to address in goal-setting.

“Our math scores are very, very high but we want to keep them that way,” Dallmann, explaining the goal of wanting to have 80% of students scoring proficient or advanced by the end of the school year. He said they have a similar goal when it comes to reading.

On the middle and high school level, the goals are similar to last year to have 75% to 80% proficient. At those levels, the district measures proficiencies in reading, English, math and science. “75% to 80% is a very vigorous goal from where we are right now,” said Aimee Blomberg, middle and high school principal.

• Received a preliminary total for enrollment. Grubbs said the district is in the process of finalizing the student enrollment count and said the overall enrollment appears to be steady with a slight dip as the smallest class in the entering kindergarten class and having graduated a really large senior class. He said he hoped to have the final number by the Oct. 6 annual meeting.

• Received an update on the summer math and reading challenges. Dallmann said 91 students took part, and while it was down from 107 last year, was still the second highest total since they started the program to keep kids engaged in learning through the summer break. “If we can prevent summer slide for a handful of kids, it is worth it,” Dallmann said, noting that some students would read through the summer without the program, while others need the incentive for the program to get them reading. From all the students participating, selected students had the opportunity to be driven to school by county and area law enforcement and fire departments. Dallmann described it as being one of his favorite days to be at the school. “I think it is a great prize for our kids,” he said.

• Received an update on the school district safety plan. It continues to be fine tuned. With the construction projects, there were changes in the reunification locations for if the buildings needed to be evacuated. Through the year, the district will be holding drills for different types of emergency situations.

• Approved spending $6,150 for required analysis of the district’s other post employment benefits (OPEB) valuation to make sure the district is budgeting enough to meet the obligations. The review is done every two years.

• Approved policy updates to allow district personnel to administer Narcan if needed. Grubbs said the district has access to the drug, which is used to treat opioid overdose. The policy also includes administration of districtowned epi-pens for emergency treatment of allergic reactions.