The impact of the federal reserve increasing bond rates and potential property purchase were two factors that refined the design for the next Lisbon Schools expansion.
Lisbon school board and facility committee liaison Allan Mallie said that one of the things the district is looking at is the potential purchase of the Bardsley property located east of the school.
Mallie said that the Bardsley family was okay with releasing that information to the public, and the school will be working at getting an appraisal of a price tag for the property, with an anticipated price between $250,000 to $400,000.
Mallie said he had communicated with Emergent Architecture about that change to see if there could be some reduction of roughly $400,000 in the cost of the addition.
“A property purchase doesn’t come around that often, and that would give us more options for development to the east,” Mallie said.
Board member Abbe Stensland noted she has already seen bond rates beginning to increase as well with the federal reserve increasing interest rates in her job with banks.
“That could eat into our bonding capacity by up to $500,000 to $600,000,” Stensland said. “That’s something we should keep in mind as well.”
Emergent Architecture proposed a project just shy of $4 million, not counting contingency and soft costs.
The plan would remodel the superintendent and district offices, shifting the superintendent’s office further to the south of the building and connected to the new wing. The board conference room would also be relocated further south in the building, with a door directly from the outside.
The industrial arts classrooms would be designed for classes Wischmeyer expects in the coming year, including a classroom for Computer Aided Designing/Drafting.
The industrial arts classroom will feature a separate wood shop and teaching space, with glass windows and no blind corners to allow Wischmeyer to see students using equipment as while teaching from the classroom.
There would be one overhead door on the south side of the building, to allow students to take a project to the woods or metals rooms. The metals room would have five welding booths and other tools.
An addition to the first floor was the construction of a new wrestling room with solid concrete walls to serve as the storm shelter for the district, able to house 773 people in the room safely.
The existing wrestling room would be converted to a weight room.
On the second floor would be three additional classrooms, looking to expand the middle school wing of the district.
The district is also looking at potential fixes to the elementary playground, installing an astroturf product compared to regular grass. They hope to install more drainage to wick more water away from the field. The product could have an eight to 10 year longevity.
The 1938 gymnasium floor will be replaced with a poured resin floor.
Most of the project can go on during the school year, as these would be new construction and would not impact current classroom spaces. Any renovations could happen in the second summer of the project.
The trade off is that the district will lose some parking stalls in the south parking lot.
“I like the idea this is not an 8 million project,” Mallie said. “We have a realistic goal in mind, and the board is taking a common sense approach to this project.”
The district will be working with Matt Gillaspie to see how interest rates have impacted their borrowing capacity and getting the firm costs on the proposed property purchase to have more solid numbers. The board will have another work session Monday, July 11, on the project, and will have a public hearing at the Wednesday, July 13, school board meeting.