Abby K-12 sees progress on construction projects
Abbotsford Superintendent Ryan Bargender delivered some good news to the board of education on Nov. 15 regarding the district’s two major construction projects, the pool repair and the FEMA stormshelter/multi-purpose facility.
“The pool is going full blast,” Bargender said. “They’re in there working on a few different things. We got the tile in there, and in the next week they’ll be tiling the lanes in the pool. It’s getting exciting, not a whole lot to see picture-wise, but they’ve done some stuff under the ground, and we’re on schedule.”
The pool repair project is expected to be completed in early 2022.
Bargender then filled in the board with an update regarding the FEMA storm shelter.
The district has been working with engineering firm HSR Associates out of La Crosse to design a more traditional storm shelter as opposed to the dome to save on construction costs. Bargender told the board that FEMA has approved the plans for the traditional structure, and with that now approved, Bargender said HSR will be putting out bids for construction of the facility in December.
“We picked some interior finish options, colors of the flooring, the walls and door frames,” he said. “And then, finally, the scope of work change was approved, meaning FEMA approved moving from the dome to a more traditional structure. HSR was getting a little nervous because it could have held up progress, but now that it’s approved, everything is on schedule.”
Bargender told the board that district accountability coordinator Georgia Kraus helped the city of Abbotsford apply for a $5 million dollar grant through Wisconsin’s Neighborhood Investment Fund, a part of Gov. Evers Badger Bounce Back Plan. Bargender is hoping that if the city of Abbotsford is approved for the grant, some of the money can be used for the increased costs of construction on the FEMA storm shelter.
“We checked a lot of the boxes. . . it’s on our school property, so maybe they won’t approve it, but we really went with the fact of the need of childcare in the city, using the FEMA facility as 4K solves some of that, along with before and after school programming and allowing the community to use the multipurpose gym for community activities. I think it looks good, but we don’t know who else applied, and what their situations are. This would really provide a boost, and they’ll let us know in December.”
Mil rate to decrease
During October’s monthly board and annual budget meeting, Bargender let it be known that the district’s mil rate in 2021-22 will be decreasing by 1.3 percent, dropping from last year’s rate of $9.84 to $9.73 per thousand. This will result in a decrease of 12 cents per $1,000 of a home’s value. The equalized value of the district increased by $11.3 million.
_ The district is working on a developing a community interpreter course in conjunction with NTC. The course would be a series of classes that would give students certification as community interpreters once students proved proficiency in both English and Spanish.
_ The board approved the hiring of Ida Miller and Ruth Dettman as cook helpers and accepted Brian Lewison as the boys JV basketball coach.
_ The board approved a motion to approve the city’s use of the Falcons logo on the city’s water tower.
_ Thanksgiving vacation will extend from Nov. 24-26.
_ The HS/MS holiday concert will be held on Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. The elementary school’s holiday concert will be held on Dec. 14, and will begin at 1:30 p.m.
_ The district held a school violence event drill on the Oct. 28.
_ The board discussed possible changes to the 2021-22 academic calendar. A staff survey was conducted on the possibility of offering a week long vacation for spring break, with 50 percent of staff in support of the full week off. Twentynine percent did not have an opinion and 20 percent said no.
To facilitate a week long spring break, the district will need to find two days on the calendar that are currently off. The proposed two days the staff chose are the two days after parent/teacher conferences. The staff also answered that they would prefer late starts going back to Wednesdays instead of Mondays, as they are now. The board will vote on the proposed changes at next month’s board of education meeting.
