Abby K-12 receives bid to design dome

The Abbotsford School District took another important step last week with its FEMA storm shelter/multi-purpose dome when the district’s facilities committee approved a motion to advance a bid from HSR Associates.

The entire board of education will take up the topic on Monday of officially approving HSR as the district’s engineer and project overseer. The district has worked with HSR before to design and construct the six new classrooms that were built in 2018.

“There’s a lot of expertise within the organization, and they proved to be very true advocates for us throughout the entire process, ” said superintendent Sherry Baker.

That familiarity is a good thing, as HSR was the only architectural firm to submit a bid for the dome/storm shelter.

“We sent out RFPs, but most just didn’t respond,” Baker said. “Everyone is building right now, and construction and architectural engineering services are way behind everywhere.”

Just because HSR’s proposal was the only one submitted, Baker told board members they did not have to accept it.

Maintenance supervisor Mason Rachu, however, told the facilities committee that HSR has done their homework.

“They were the only ones that actually came here and toured where it would go, what it would look like,” Rachu told the facilities committee. “They looked at all the drawings that Jordan Buss submitted to us. They were very interested and wanted to know everything and asked all the right questions.”

The district’s intention is to hire a firm that will not just draw up plans, but oversee the entire project, similar to what was done during the construction of the six classrooms.

The next step for the district is for the proposal to be reviewed by the entire board of education during its monthly meeting next week.

The goal is to break ground on the dome project in spring of 2022, and have the outer shell done by that fall.