Bond projects underway in Cd'A School District
JUDD WILSON/Press The construction of a 10-classroom, two-story addition to Lake City High School is proceeding ahead of schedule, said LCHS Principal Deanne Clifford.
The Hayden Meadows gymnasium had old carpet instead of wood flooring. In 2017, the carpet was torn out and a new wood floor was installed. (Courtesy photo)
Clifford
COEUR d’ALENE — In March 2017, 77 percent of Coeur d’Alene School District voters approved a $35.5 million bond measure. The district is well underway with bidding out, awarding bids, and breaking ground on the projects, district spokesman Scott Maben said Wednesday.
Most of the projects are scheduled for completion this summer but all have faced higher-than-anticipated costs. Maben attributed the high bids to a boom in construction costs since 2017. Material prices have risen, demand is up nationwide, and subcontractors in short supply are submitting bids two to three times greater than anticipated several years ago, he said.
At Lake City High School, Coeur d’Alene High School, and Dalton Elementary School, prices came in higher than expected but still within the district’s ability to award bids, he added.
LCHS Principal Deanne Clifford praised Ginno Construction Co. for its work at the high school.
“Ginno’s been incredible,” she said effusively. Clifford explained that the work, which is ahead of schedule, will house eight teachers currently without permanent classroom spaces, freeing up space outdoors now occupied by portable classrooms. Ginno will add 10 new classrooms in a two-story addition on the south end of LCHS for $5.82 million.
Clifford said some gym class students have to run laps in the school hallways because they have no gym to use. Ginno will build an auxiliary gym to alleviate crowded physical education programs and provide additional space for team sports, explained Maben. Ginno will build an addition onto the existing wrestling room, relocate the weight room to a new space, add a multi-purpose classroom/meeting room, and improve the student drop-off area at the front of the school, he added.
Maben said that at Coeur d’Alene High School, Ginno will build an addition with eight new classrooms, expand Viking Court to function as the new competition gym, construct a new wrestling room, build a weight room addition, add a new testing and multipurpose room, and construct a new gymnasium entry on the east side of the school for $7.11 million.
At Dalton Elementary School, Dardan Enterprises, Inc. will add three new classrooms, a newly designed art room, a newly designed media center, and a new stage and music room attached to the gymnasium for $2.72 million, Maben said.
All three projects are scheduled to be completed by the end of this summer.
Due to an unacceptably high bidding process last year, the district had to delay improvements to the Fernan STEM Academy parking lot, parent drop-off lane, and bus loop until this year, Maben said. Buddy’s Backhoe Service will do the job for $290,000.
Carpeting at the Hayden Meadows Elementary School gymnasium was torn out and a new wooden floor installed last year, Maben said. Other projects completed last year include a new parking lot at Dalton Elementary, new stage curtains and track and field improvements at CHS and LCHS, and refurbished lockers at Lakes Magnet Middle School.
However, the district received only two bids on a large Lakes Magnet Middle School project, and the bids were 24 percent over the project budget. Work would include a new media center, new practice gym, updates to the gym and locker rooms, new band room, conversion of an old library to classroom, an additional parking lot, and relocation of basketball courts, Maben said. Because of the high prices, the district had to reject both bids, he said. Maben stated that for the time being, there is a question as to when work there will start.
The expenditure of bond money has not been without controversy. The school board has caught flak from its Feb. 12 decision to build a new elementary school on property the district now owns at Hayden Avenue and Government Way, instead of in the northwestern portion of the school district, as was widely anticipated in the runup to the bond election. The $11.5 million new elementary school project got moved to the Northwest Expedition Academy property because land prices in the northwestern section of the district were too high to fit the budget, Maben said.
“What we can’t do is spend more than we have,” he said.
The district had initially desired to buy land near the airport, but that was nixed due to safety concerns. One thing after the other forced the board to go with the NExA site in order to build a new elementary school for 550 students by fall 2019, he explained.
The district is working with the city of Hayden to preserve the former Hayden Lake School building on the site, which might be converted into a community center or a senior center.
Maben said the district has continually updated bond project information on its website, and has emailed updates to students’ families. Regular updates on the bond projects are posted at: www.cdaschools.org/levybond.