Ceremonial earth turned for new Holton Elementary School

Wednesday afternoon at Colo­rado Elementary School in Holton marked a time to tear down and a time to build.

The former involved the demoli­tion of the last house standing on the block immediately west of the school — the former Chandler house, as some remember it — while the latter was marked by a groundbreaking ceremony preced­ing construction of the new Holton Elementary School on that block.

Representatives from the Holton school board, the Hollis and Miller architectural firm of Overland Park and Nabholz Construction of Olathe were on hand to help Holton’s elementary teachers and students celebrate the imminent construction of the new school, which will replace both Colorado and Central elementary schools. Completion of construction has been anticipated on or around May 31, 2016, it was reported.

For the time being, students at Colorado School were content to watch from a distance as school officials and representatives from Nabholz and Hollis and Miller spoke about the importance of the new school and the community’s involvement in making it a reality. After the speeches, Colorado stu­dents watched as Travis Amon of Brahma Excavating of Holton used an excavator to demolish the Chan­dler house.

“Take it down! Take it down!” students cheered as Amon made short work of the old house.

Holton school officials including current superintendent Dennis Stones and his predecessor, Nancy Meyer, stressed the amount of work that has gone into the new school thus far, whether from the commu­nity that approved a bond issue last May for its construction or the Hollis and Miller personnel who drafted the school plans.

“They’ve designed a facility that the entire community will be able to be proud of for years to come,” Stones said of the architectural firm’s work.

Meyer — who oversaw the ef­forts that culminated in last May’s successful bond issue election after two failed efforts in years past, then retired as superintendent shortly afterward — said her excitement over the project is likely to bring her back to Holton to watch as the new school is being built.

“I’m tickled,” Meyer said of the upcoming construction.

It was recently reported that the Holton school board approved a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) of $17,717,930 from Nabholz for construction of the new school. The overall expected cost of the new 80,000-square-foot school was set at $21,486,615, just under the school district’s $21.5-million budget for the project.

School officials had been look­ing at building a new elementary school for the better part of two decades, said Tom Davies, a former Holton school board member on hand to witness the groundbreak­ing. But now, with the “long proc­ess” over, according to current school board president Shelby Patch, the “wonderful journey” that Holton elementary students make through their school years is about to become even more so.

“Many of us have great memo­ries of our elementary days in a school, and for most of us, it was in that school right across the street,” Patch said, pointing to Colorado School. “I am so excited that we’ll be able to provide new memories for years and years to come, with this new elementary school.”

One of those who expressed pride in making the journey was Beth Smith, who now serves as principal at Central Elementary School. During her own journey, Smith remarked about eating in the “cafetoriums” — the “multi-pur­pose room” at each of the two ele­mentary schools that served as cafeteria and gymnasium — and the mobile education units at Colorado that will no longer be a part of Holton students’ elementary experience once the new school is built.

“I’m so grateful that I grew up in Holton schools, and now I work here,” Smith said.

Nabholz executive vice president Jon Pahl also offered his thoughts for students getting ready to make that “journey” in the new school, saying it was “kind of cool to me to think that there may be some future employees of Nabholz going to school right here.”

Pahl and Greg Porter, Hollis and Miller senior project architect, also introduced those present to mem­bers of their respective teams that have been or will be involved in the school’s construction. In Porter’s case, one of his team members has also been involved in that “jour­ney” — mechanical engineer Marc Bowser, a 2007 graduate of Holton High School and son of current school board member Steve Bowser.

Also present were two students from Central Elementary School, both of whom had composed es­says that took top honors in a school competition with the win­ners to read their essays at the groundbreaking ceremony. Lorna Smith, a third-grader at Central, and Darby Ireland, a fifth-grader, read their essays, which are printed elsewhere in today’s Holton Re­corder.

The only one present at Wednes­day’s activities apparently not happy about what was going on was a raccoon that apparently had taken up residence in the aban­doned Chandler house. As Amon used his excavator to bring the old house to ground, the raccoon could be seen scurrying up the conical rooftop on the old house’s turret, but eyewitnesses to the demolition said the raccoon was able to make it safely down the other side just as the turret came crashing down.