The School Board heard updated cost estimates for bond projects at Thursday’s meeting and saw new renderings of what the high school additions, auxiliary gym, weight room and elementary playground will look like.
The new gym will have room for 250 attendees to watch junior varsity or freshman games. Superintendent Stu Moeckel said this plan makes the space most flexible while having bleachers that are folded out to make more practice space.
The new weight room will be triple the size of the high school’s current room.
He also shared the most up-to-date estimates for bond projects. The document is not final, as most bids haven’t been sent out or approved by the board.
Moeckel said he has been working with Newkirk Novak and HTK Architects to prioritize what projects to cut or keep if bids come in over budget.
Moeckel also noted the bid for precast walls for the high school came in under budget, but with the increased square footage to the gym, the total cost for that may be higher than originally outlined in previous estimates.
The board approved a $1.4 million bid for the precast concrete walls for the new high school auxiliary gym.The lowest bidder out of three, Mid America Precast, came in under the original budget. They intend to install the concrete next summer.
The new playground will be placed in the same space as the existing elementary playground. The area will have two sections: one ramped area for accessibility and one non-ramped area.
Renderings of some of the new playground pieces are here:
One side will be more aimed for kindergarten through second grade students, while the other will be for third through fifth graders, although both sides will be safe for all ages and can be utilized by all grade levels, Moeckel said.
A committee of teachers and administrators worked with Moeckel to make sure the new playground would be safe and satisfactory for students’ needs. The board voted to approve a bid from ABCreative, a De Soto company, for the new playground for $903,771. The playground will hopefully be installed next summer.
“I’m excited,” board member Claire Harding said. “I appreciate that the teachers had a chance to look at this review and make their observations, recommendations.”
As far as costs for the remaining projects, project plans are already changing as costs are estimated as bids are nearer.
Some projects may still be estimated at a price much higher than what they will actually be, like the cost for technological needs across the district, Moeckel said. These changes may leave more room for adding back other projects in the future.
Bids for remaining projects will be sent out in January with board approval in February.
Harding questioned why the auxiliary gym and fitness had been cut into two separate line items on the newest pre-bid document. She noted the total seemed big.
Moeckel said the team likely did the document that way to more accurately break down the costs. The original budget did not include the bigger gym plan the board settled on, which may have slightly raised the cost, he said.
“We knew we would probably add $1.2 million guesstimate when we went to the max of that,” Moeckel said.
The new budget document shows cuts to sidewalks/pavements and LED retrofitting projects, something the board previously expressed need for. The last total cost was $34,328,206 and the latest cost estimate is $34,119,770, about $200,000 under budget.
Board member Joe Hurla said he was frustrated about the number of cuts to some infrastructure needs on the new cost sheet.
“I don’t have a question and I appreciate that we’re underbid or that his came $200,000 [under budget] and that we should feel positive, but I guess I look at it we’ve cut out millions of dollars in projects already. And the one that we have is under so that is a little frustrating,” Hurla said.
Hurla said the big things are there like the auxiliary gym and new entrances, but the infrastructure items are being left out already.
No decisions have been made on these projects, but Moeckel said they have been taking a look at priorities and what can be shifted. There are areas that will likely not cost as much as currently budgeted, leaving room to bring back some of the projects.
“So I anticipate us being able to shift other things in this and prioritize and that, again, will come before you,” Moeckel said.
“I feel positive in the fact that the board’s going to be able to provide the community what they promised,” he added.
Moeckel said it is unlikely the district spends $2.4 million on technology throughout the district, although that is what is currently budgeted.
Numbers will start to solidify soon, Moeckel said. He also said Newkirk Novak could come talk to the board before bids are sent out to discuss project planning.
“I guess the easiest thing is – this is a working document that Newkirk Novak creates as they work with the design team before it goes out to bid,” Moeckel said.
During the superintendent’s report, Moeckel shared a potential calendar for the 2024-25 school year. The calendar would have students in their first full day for first through 12th graders on Aug. 16.
The first full day for kindergarten and early childhood would be Aug. 19. The last day of school would be May 20. A change is coming to the last day of school making it a half day with dismissal at 11:15 a.m.
There will also be a new professional development day on Nov. 1, an exciting addition for the teachers, Moeckel said. The draft calendar is available here.
Moeckel said the district tries to keep the calendar close to the previous year’s so it is most agreeable for families. The board will vote on the calendar at a future meeting.
The board also heard an update from elementary school administration and teachers.
Principal Seth Heide said composite scores for math held around 70% at benchmark, a “fantastic” level for the building. The reading composites scores increased 3% overall too, he said.
For a big school, another goal this year was to better communicate throughout, he said.
Getting out and being more communicative with all building employees to get information out and also make sure their thoughts are getting back to leadership teams has also been a priority.
Assistant Principal Jamie Grado outlined some of the challenges for the school this year. She discussed the multi-tiered system of supportprocess, and said they have been setting more intentional goals for social-emotional and behavioral learning for students. They have started streamlining the systems of support and how students can carry it through different grade levels.
“So even though it’s an area of challenge, we’ve recognized it was a challenge but we also have turned it into something that we know we need to grow and make better and that’s one of our goals that we did,” Grado said.
Grado also noted finding substitute teachers has been a problem, an issue she said other districts are facing as well.
“There isn’t a morning that we don’t do what we call the sub shuffle in human Tetris at 6:45 a.m,” Grado said.
She said there hasn’t been a time when other teachers haven’t stepped up to help, however.
With the stress and challenges, Grado highlighted the building’s projects to show gratitude to teachers each week with treats and surprises to thank them for their hard work.
Grado also talked about the building’s implementation of two new instructional coaches. The coaches are in place to work with teachers to get better at anything they might need professional development on. The coaches have started building relationships with staff, she said. They are also available for content-specific coaching.
Teachers also spoke about individual successes and challenges within their respective grade levels.
Kindergarten teacher Stephanie Jacobs said one of the challenges for new students entering the district is that if they didnt do pre-k in Eudora, it can be a struggle to get them into the multi-tiered system of support process. It can be hard to determine if it is an exposure issue or if a student needs more support.
A success for kindergarten has been being able to separate kids out so even the students performing at benchmark can increase their learning rather than stay where they are.
First grade teacher Sarajane Haney said 60% of students are demonstrating mastery of high frequency words, which has made a great impact on their reading fluency, but the challenge has been students are needing more support in social-emotional learning skills.
Elizabeth Schmidt said second grade has had students’ reading average increasing 20 words per minute and 66% of the grade level scored at or above grade level for the math benchmark.
A challenge has been seeing a trend in the increase and regularity of social-emotional learning needs. Schmidt said there is more support and training needed to deal with the behaviors.
In other business, the board also voted to realign the district science standards with the Kansas Department of Education Next Generation Standards. The actual curriculum is not changing as much as the names and numbers, Moeckel said.
Moeckel also honored Becky Plate and Lynn Reazin with plaques to commemorate and thank them for their time serving the board since their terms are coming to an end.
The board also recognized FFA for its competitions and activities this semester. Mandi Holsten, who was hired as adviser this year, highlighted her students’ hard work and dedication to the team on top of their normal course load.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney [email protected].
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