The start of a new school year is always an invigorating time for students, staff, and parents, and we’re pleased to have students back in their classrooms. We have great staff and learning opportunities for students, as well as some new faces and exciting new programming. As they returned, students and parents also found changes taking place around the school with our construction project getting underway. While that construction is only starting to ramp up, the planning that has gotten us to this point has been very detailed and meticulous. In the coming months, we will see increasingly noticeable changes to the exterior appearance around our school.
With the school year starting alongside the construction, we have returned to our routine learning, without disruption to our daily operations. While it has come with a few inconveniences, overall, it has been very manageable. We are incredibly grateful for the flexibility and support of our students, staff, and community as we navigate these exciting campus improvements. We are also excited to expand learning opportunities ahead of these new spaces becoming available. This past year, we added an additional teacher to our Career and Technical Education teaching staff. We’ve been able to create a temporary learning space to make three classrooms available to those teachers—namely Mr. Sand, Mr. Bruss, and Mr. Wert—who are providing instruction in industrial arts and agricultural education. They, along with our new science teacher, Mrs. Heinz, who is providing instruction in the new greenhouse, are providing programming that we previously offered along with some new opportunities that haven’t previously been available to students. We look forward to these teachers being able to maximize these opportunities, in areas such as automotive, meat processing, and precision agriculture, once those facilities become available following construction.
Below is a high level overview of construction updates from the summer and what is anticipated in the coming months.
Summer Planning and Construction. Over the past several months, our board and administration have been meeting, reviewing, and planning for all the variables that go along with making a project like this come together nicely. There are many moving parts, and it involves a lot of meticulous planning by our board members and construction teams. They have literally spent dozens of hours planning for a wide variety of nuances that are important to the finished product.
Some of that planning is already evident in the construction that has begun over the summer. In order to maximize our time and expedite the construction timeline, some elements of the project started with target drawings that were provided by the architects ahead of the deadline for the final set of plans. Those are the projects that you have seen implemented by our construction partners to prepare our campus for the start of the school year. We are pleased that several key areas are already underway or even completed.
Inside the building, one of the most noticeable improvements is the completion of our elementary classroom walls. The former temporary partitions in the lower elementary have been replaced with permanent walls and doors. These updated classrooms, complete with new carpet and fresh paint, are already providing an improved and sound learning environment for our elementary students.
Outside, great progress has been made on concrete work and site drainage. Crews were able to pour the elementary parking lot and prep the location of the future preschool. Additionally, the construction crew completed some of the new sidewalks to improve campus accessibility. This includes updates to the south sidewalk, which was just recently completed and made available to students. The location of that old sidewalk will now be used for the expansion of our Career and Technical Education facilities.
The path connecting the new north parking lot to the football grandstand was also poured and made ready for use ahead of our first home football game. Additionally, assembly of our new greenhouse is complete, and extensive site preparation and exterior drainage improvements around the track have made great strides, with trees removed, terraces smoothed, and seeding underway. The other areas may not be finalized until later in the construction process to avoid unnecessary reduplication of some of that seeding.
Finalized Designs. Throughout the summer, the School Board’s construction-planning committee held regular planning meetings with the architects and our construction managers to prepare and finalize the specific details of our new additions and renovations. The architect’s official complete set of construction drawings and specifications were finalized in late August, consistent with the original timeline.
These blueprints encompass the layouts for all construction coming to our campus. Those provide the highly-detailed layouts for our expanded Career and Technical Education and shop spaces, which will feature dedicated exhaust systems and expanded spaces to maximize hands-on learning. The new primary competition gym layout has also been configured to maximize space and seating accessibility, ensuring the bleachers can be fully utilized for side-by-side contests. The footprint for the new facilities remains the same as it did in the conceptual phase, with some internal rearrangement to learning and competition areas to maximize the utility of these spaces.
Upcoming Bids and Fall Construction Timeline. With the final drawings now complete, we are moving into the final bid-solicitation phase of the project. Roughly a third of the bids have been received and approved for larger items, such as concrete, being solicited based on early drawings provided by the architects. The remaining opening is scheduled near the end of September. The board has been working diligently to ensure that the project remains on budget while providing the full voter-approved construction scope. We hope for construction of exterior structures to begin in mid-fall, potentially as early as October depending upon how quickly final plans can be cleared by the fire marshal and other regulatory entities for construction.
Beyond 2026. While we recognize that construction schedules are naturally subject to change, we have established a general phasing plan to guide our overall progress. For the duration of the 2026-2027 school year, the bulk of the construction will focus on building structures around the exterior of the existing school. This will allow learning and daily operations within the school to remain largely unaffected. This includes beginning construction on the preschool to the north, the gym and weight room to the west, and the new Career & Technical Education shop and classrooms to the south.
During the summer of 2027, the focus will shift heavily toward getting as much of the internal renovation done as possible while students are out of the building. This involves a heavy focus on our D Wing renovation, with the goal of having those spaces completed and ready for the start of the 2027-2028 school year. These renovations include the learning spaces of the existing agriculture and industrial arts classrooms and shop, as well as the current high school band and vocal rooms. Additionally, the phasing plan aims to have the new preschool addition ready for use for the 2027-2028 school year. Entrance security reconfigurations, and the new south activities entrance construction, will also take place during the summer of 2027, to be in use beginning that fall.
Beyond that, we anticipate the new gym and weight room will become available for use during the spring semester of 2028. The remaining renovations—including the elementary kindergarten and workroom reconfiguration, and auditorium, locker rooms, and Family and Consumer Sciences spaces—are scheduled to be completed during the spring and summer of 2028. This will allow these final spaces to be available for use beginning in the 2028-2029 school year.
In closing, we are committed to keeping you informed. As new information regarding matters affecting safety and logistics as the larger phases of construction get underway, we will continue to make it available. We appreciate everyone’s patience and flexibility as we work to improve our campus for generations to come. As always, if you ever have questions or things you’d like to discuss, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I can be contacted in my office in person, by phone at (402) 683-2015, or by email at brian.rottinghaus@tricountyschools.org.