munity Library and Abbyland. ….
munity Library and Abbyland.
The total cost of the project, including base bids, all seven alternative bids, the contingency fee, owner allocated budget pushes the project to a total of $6,700,000, or just under a million dollars more than what the district was hoping for.
“We set aside seven bidding alternatives in case funding got super tight or we decided we could do without this for now, or add it in a couple years later,” Bargender said. “I had them put together seven bid alternatives, and Market & Johnson was the lowest on the base bids and including all the alternates, they were still the lowest.”
This comes after the board had already chosen to scrap a FEMA dome storm shelter, and removed items such as a theater stage and pull out bleachers. The cost of the project was initially estimated to be closer to $3,100,000, with FEMA supplying $2,200,000, or roughly 75 percent of the structure’s cost.
Based on current plans the FEMA storm shelter’s interior would consist of three 4K classrooms, a collaboration area and a community room, as well as extra gym space for overflow for games and events.
The community room also frees up space at the MS/HS as the current community room doubles as a classroom. The alternative bids include:
_ $63,777 for a resilient athletic flooring in gym
_ $24,922 for built in display cases in entry
_ $60,470 for full height porcelain wall tile in miscellaneous rooms
_ $9,246 for Falcon sign halo lighting at exterior entry
_ $16,100 for two wall mounted scoreboards in the gym _ $81,561 for audio and video systems in the gym
_ $13,748 for four side court basketball backstops in the gym Between inflation, the rising cost of goods and materials and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the cost of the storm shelter has risen to its current price tag of $6.7 million.
The board attempted to contact FEMA for more money considering the increased expenses, but received no additional federal income. The contribution from the FEMA grant now covers just a third of the total project.
The board also has yet to hear from the state regarding Gov. Evers and his Badger Bounce Back plan, which could potentially help the district obtain funds for the FEMA storm shelter.
Bargender said the HSR had reached out to Market & Johnson to see if there was any way the district could remove items to lower the cost of the project, such as removing the community room, or changing the square footage, but the board was told the savings would be minimal.
“The only thing we can do that was to change the square footage, which the FEMA portion we cannot do. We could eliminate the community room, which isn’t going to save us very much money because we still need that corridor to get to the FEMA facility,” Bargender said.
“There’s really not much savings that can be done now. We could eliminate some or all of the alternates, we could make changes to the plan and go back to rebid, but that would push everything back about six weeks.”
HSR advised against revising the plan as construction costs are only going to trend higher, and could cost the district even more. Bargender said a fourth option exited, which would be to scrap the project entirely, but he, as well as board member Ivone Vazquez, remarked that this does little to change the district’s ongoing problem - a growing student body and limited space to work with.
“We do need the space,” Bargender said. “The need is not going away as you saw by the head count. It would be diffi cult not to use the $2,500,000 in FEMA grants and donations. The finance committee met Friday, and was in favor of accepting the bid and bid alternates.”
The board moved to accept the base bid and seven alternative bids, but from there, the conversation shifted to a more delicate matter - how to pay for the FEMA storm shelter.
The board of education’s finance committee met on Thursday, Jan. 13 to address this problem and discuss their payment options.
“We need to figure out how we’re going to pay for the $6.7 million dollar project. There are really only two options,” Bargender told the board. Bargender then ran through the numbers and scenarios for the board on Monday night.
In option one, Bargender said the district can use current funds set aside for the building. The district has $2.2 million from FEMA, $340,500 from donations and another $1.8 million dollars in Fund 46 that had been putting aside for the project prior to the increase. The district can secure another $263,000 in Carl B. Thompson funds.
“That is not an annual amount each year that we can set aside,” Bargender said in comments made in a later interview. “Every year we have a certain percentage of dividends/interest that we can set aside in a separate account. We have never used it, so that is the current balance.”
The district also has $103,000 from coronavirus relief funds, $6,000 miscellaneous student funds, and a total of a million dollars in ESSER III funds, along with some additional ESSER funding, “All in all, we have about six million dollars,” Bargender told the board. “So that leaves us with a $700,000 deficit.”
The district also has a one million dollar authority limit thanks to last year’s pool loan. Bargender figured the district has a balance of $400,000, meaning there is an additional $600,000 the district could borrow.
The district can also borrow more than a million dollars, but would need to go through a 30 day petition period in order to secure the funds. The district can also utilize parts of the 2022-23 budget, and potentially some of the 2023-24 budget.
In essence, Bargender said the district would be putting all of its eggs in one basket, and then pray that another large unexpected repair project like the district’s pool would not take place.
“The other option to alleviate the financial stress is we could go to referendum to borrow anywhere from a million to two million,” Bargender said. Bargender then laid out several examples of what going to referendum would mean to the district and its mil rate.
The first example Bargender showed the board was the effect of borrowing a million dollars over three years. Bargender said the mil rate would decrease by $1.05 for three years.
If the district did a three year, $1.5 million referendum, the mil rate would decrease 28 cents over a three year period. If it was three years for $2 million dollars, the mil rate would increase 48 cents. A four year two million dollar referendum would leave the mil rate level.
“A supported referendum would provide relief in the event of unforeseen circumstances in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 budgets,” Bargender said. “We would be cutting it pretty tight, and we would using all our available funds without it.”
Board member Gary Schraufnagel noted that in 2025 the school’s debt from the 2009 addition from when the elementary school was built rolls off, and in five or six years the district might need to go to another referendum.
Schraufnagel said that in the next five to six years the district might need to go to another referendum to pay for additional high school facilities to account for the growing student population.
Bargender told Schraufnagel the district has already begun those initial discussions, but that they still very much need the FEMA shelter for the students that are coming in today.
“I’m not sure if it’s going to increase as much as this school year, but we are going to have an increase of our students,” board member Ivone Vazquez said, piggybacking off of Bargender’s comments.
“Immigration keeps going up and we keep getting more and more new people coming. We are going to have more students next year. I don’t know how much more, but we will have some new kids.”
With that in mind, Schraufnagel put forth a motion for a $1.5 million dollar referendum over the next four years.
“I just don’t want to run too tight,” he said. “If we get anything like we’ve seen with the pool, or something else that needs to be addressed right away, I don’t want to drain everything we’ve got.”
The board unanimously approved the $1.5 millon dollar referendum. There will be a special meeting on Jan. 26 to pass the resolution to make sure the referendum is on April’s ballot.
Other business
_ Board members approved shortened COVID-19 quarantines based on new guidlines from the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
Under the district’s new guidelines, if a student tests positive for COVID-19, they must isolate for five days. In the event they show no symptoms, or symptoms are improving, and they’re fever free for 24 hours with aid of medication, students can return to in-person instruction on day 6, but they must mask at all times for days 6-10.
If a student is exposed to COVID-19 they must quarantine for five days, but can return to class on day 6 so long as they mask at all times from day 6 -10. Shortened quarantines do not apply if symptoms develop, even mild symptoms.
For those seeking more information, the district’s guidelines are available online on the district’s website.
_ Abbotsford’s prom is scheduled for Saturday, April 18, at Dorchester Hall.
_ The district’s head count is at 781, up from the 772 students that were enrolled September, and up from last year’s total of 764 students.
_ The re-opening for the pool is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 19, at 10 a.m. There will be a brief ceremony, followed by an open swim until noon.
