Abby K-12 awards $17.2M in bids
By Kevin O’Brien
With many of the bids for its referendum project coming in under budget, the Abbotsford School Board on Monday opted to go with a four-classroom addition at the elementary and several optional facilities upgrades as part of a $17.2 million package.
Craig Namyst, project manager for Market & Johnson, went through the bids with board members at their regular monthly meeting on Monday. Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to approve the recommendation of its finance committee, which had previously reviewed the bids at a Jan. 15 meeting following a bid opening on Jan. 8.
After voters approved a $17 million referendum last April, which included plans for two additional classrooms at the elementary and six at the middle/high school, the board started to consider the possibility of boosting the number of new elementary classrooms up to four.
“Anytime we do one of these projects, especially with your enrollment pressures, we want to make sure we have opportunities for future expansion if you need to,” architect Tim Ruppert told board members last September.
The district’s enrollment has grown by about 170 students since it opened its new elementary school in 2009, and a total of seven classrooms were previously added in 2018 and 2023.
As a result of Monday’s action, a total of 10 new classrooms will be built onto the K12 campus, including six on the east end of the middle/high school and four on the northwest corner of the elementary. In addition to the extra classrooms, the board also approved other optional bid items, including a kitchen hood replacement, new lighting for the pool, new ceilings and lights for the main corridor and the replacement of masonry on the exterior of the middle school.
“The way the bids came in definitely gives
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us flexibility when talking about the bid alternates,” superintendent Ryan Bargender told the board.
If the board had decided to stick with the original scope of the project, the total cost would have come in at just under $16 million, $584,269 under budget. By going with the four-classroom addition at the elementary and the other improvements listed above, the project will total $17.2 million, $680,664 over the original budget.
Bargender told the board that the district has multiple funding sources available to pay for the extra work, including the food service fund and Fund 46, which is used for capital projects.
All of the optional items are things that would need to be done in the next couple of years anyway, he said, noting that it will be less expensive to do the work as part of a larger project instead of waiting to do standalone projects in the future.
The cost of adding four additional classrooms at the elementary will be about $1.9 million, compared to about $1.3 million for the original two-classroom plan.
The bids originally totalled about $17.5 million when they were first opened earlier this month, but after contacting several of the subcontractors to confirm the numbers, Namyst said the actual number dropped to $17.2 million. Namyst said he’s heard back from about 90 percent of the subcontractors at this point, so there’s still a chance the total cost could decrease by a few thousand dollars.
When board member Eric Brodhagen asked Namyst if he takes the time to figure out why certain bids came in significantly above or below estimates, Namyst said that’s why he talks to each of the subcontractors to make sure they didn’t make any mistakes.
“Every single contractor in here gets vetted,” he said.
Other business
■ ■ The board approved the hiring of teacher Anna Buchberger as track and field coach and Samantha Jacobo as special education/ elementary secretary. The board also accepted the resignation of public services navigator Alma Pierce and the retirement of English Language Arts teacher Charles Kalmon.
■ ■ The board approved open enrollment caps for the 2025-2026 school year, which includes zero spaces available for new special education students. For regular education students, a range of available spaces was established for four-year-old kindergarten through third grade, depending on how many sections there are in each grade. Twenty-eight openings are available in fourth-grade and 23 spots are open in fifth-grade at this point. No limits were placed on grades sixth through 12th.
Bargender noted that the siblings of students already enrolled in the district are given preference when selecting open enrollees in a grade with capped enrollment. The district could go one step further and guarantee spots for siblings regardless of the caps, but that could create some issues for students who need special education services, Bargender said.
“Eventually we’d probably have to add staffing, which we are short on already,” he said. “It’s hard to find special ed teachers.”
■ ■ The board renewed the district’s property insurance policy through Wright Insurance, with a 10 percent hike in premiums and an increase in the deductibles from $5,000 to $15,000.
■ ■ The board voted to end the middle school cross-country co-ops with the Colby School District. Bargender noted that Abbotsford had no runners in the co-op this past season, and Abbotsford’s coach believes he could recruit some students if they didn’t have to travel to Colby in the future.
■ ■ In his monthly report, Bargender said a new fingerprint reader will need to be purchased for the wellness center and the board will need to look at raising membership fees to get the center out of the red.
Bargender also said the district will be asking students, staff and the public for help in naming the district’s new walking trail.
“Feel free to get creative and submit your best suggestion,” he said.
THE PLAN - This overhead map of the Abbotsford K-12 campus shows the six classrooms that will added to the east side of the middle school and the four classrooms to be added onto the northwest corner of the elementary school as part of a $17.2 million project slated to start this year. Other areas in red will be remodeled or upgraded.
