Abbotsford FEMA project begins Aug. 9
The Abbotsford School Board went through a series of summer housekeeping agenda items at its monthly board meeting on July 18.
The board will be hosting a groundbreaking ceremony on Aug. 9 for the school’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) building project. Earlier in the month, Superintendent Ryan Bargender and the school’s construction committee met with an engineering team from HSR Associates, Inc. to go over the timeline of the project.
Construction is slated to begin the last week of July with a targeted completion time of June 2023. Market and Johnson Construction will be carrying out the construction end of the project.
The funds were awarded in May of 2021 as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) funds to develop multi-use community tornado safe rooms.
The board then needed to raise more funds than originally anticipated for the project as construction costs rose throughout 2021. The board voted to go to a referendum to help raise the funds needed which was then subsequently passed in April of 2022. The $1.5 million referendum will cover approximately 20 percent of the overall cost of the project.
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. During the bidding process, the board quickly realized that the project cost was going to be much higher. In January of 2022, the board settled on an estimate of $6.7 million for the project.
The Abbotsford school district received the grant to develop a safe room that will provide safety from severe wind and tornadic events to the entire student body at Abbotsford Public Schools and nearby residents.
Based on plans from January, 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.
Other business
n The district went through their 2021-22 goals and recapped the progress made on those goals.
n The board approved a $75,000 donation from Forward Bank toward a new media booth at North Athletic Field.
n The board also approved up to a $1,000,000 transfer of funds from Fund 46 which is used for capital projects.
n Prairie Farms and Pan-O-Gold earned the winning bids for the district’s milk and bread supplier.
n The district approved a motion to increase meal costs for students by $0.10 and a milk increase of $0.10 as well. Breakfast will still be free for students.
n The district approved the resignations of Annette Dassow, Fay Niemann and Deb Englebretson.
n They approved the employment of Brett Nelson (co-head baseball coach), Dillon Novak (girls head cross country coach), Haley Kraemer (assistant bookkeeper), Kimberly Olmedo (EL teacher aide), Amanda Engel (teacher aide), Glen Orsburn (technology specialist), Dylan Bloch and Keith Kalepp (volunteer football coaches) and Olivia Hammel (volunteer volleyball coach).
n The board made its annual adoption of Student Academic Standards for 2022-2023.
n The board also approved updates to the cocurricular code, a dual sports participation contract, a Belize trip fundraiser and increased the base salary for support staff.
