Special school board meeting with architects tonight

McCOOK, Neb. — The McCook Public School District is moving forward with plans for a large capital expenditure slated for the junior high in a few years, with a special meeting tonight from 6 to 10 p.m.

The board will meet at the junior high conference room to hear presentations from three architect firms chosen by school administrators for proposals to renovate the junior high and/or construct a new junior high.

This project is scheduled to begin within the next few years and will first need voter approval in the form of a bond before construction begins. Taxpayer approval is crucial as the bond will be paid off over time by an increase in property taxes.

The four-hour meeting, open to the public, will allow board members to ask questions after each presentation. The three architect firms will present information on their experience of design-bid-build or bid-build, Superintendent Grant Norgaard said Monday night at the regular school board meeting, as well as their design process and how they will engage the community. There will be no action taken at tonight’s meeting, he said, but the board will be asked to choose a firm at an upcoming regular board meeting.

Board member Loretta Hauxwell asked if there were guidelines or objectives Norgaard had in mind for questions and Norgaard said he could email a rubric of what could be asked.

Hauxwell said that it probably wouldn’t be necessary. “The beauty of the board is that we all come from different perspectives,” she said.

At the July school board meeting, Norgaard told the board that he and two other administrators, McCook Schools Business Manager Jeff Gross and McCook Junior High principal, Chad Lyons, had interviewed three architect firms concerning infrastructure improvements at the junior high and possibly a new auditorium at the Senior High School. All three firms have experience with the construction of schools in western Nebraska, he said and all will have samples for remodeling or a new school building.

The three firms scheduled for tonight’s meeting are the DLR Group of Lincoln/Omaha, which worked on a school in Minden, Neb.; Joseph Hewgley and Associates of North Platte, Neb., with work done at the North Platte High School; and W Design of McCook, who is the current project manager/engineers for the HVAC upgrades at the junior high.

Bids for that job were approved by the board in August, with the only bid coming from Snell Services, Inc. of North Platte for $927,500. Snell recently reduced the bid cost to $745,233. The bid for controls, at $16,481, is also part of the project but did not need official approval from the board as it’s under $100,000. The project also includes $103,888 for design and construction fees for W Designs, the project manager/engineer. All of the costs for the HVAC upgrade will be paid for by funds the school district receives from federal ESSR funds, or Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds.