School year to end sooner for Holton's elementary students

Holton elementary school students will be finishing up classes three days earlier than expected in May, following action taken by the school board here Monday evening.

The final day of classes for elementary students at the Colorado and Central Elementary Schools will be Friday, May 20, it was decided at the meeting.

School teachers and other staff at the two elementary schools will then use those three days that were originally scheduled for classes – May 23-25 - to help clean out the Colorado and Central school buildings, classroom by classroom, it was reported.

May 26 will also still be a work day/staff development day for the teachers.

Superintendent Dennis Stones asked the school board for the early release date for the elementary students in order for asbestos abatement work to be completed starting the week of May 23 with demolition of most of the Colorado school to follow. Asbestos abatement (removal) is expected to take five to seven days.

Supt. Stones said there is a possibility that the elementary school teachers may be able to move items from their current classrooms directly to their new classrooms at the new elementary school. However, if that is not the case, then those items selected for removal from the old schools will need to be stored at the district’s building near the new school that used to be known as the fair building. 

Supt. Stones said that the construction schedule for the spring and summer at the new elementary school is looking very tight and any setbacks or delays at this point forward could jeopardize the start date for the new school term next August. 

So far, however, he said, all work is on schedule and the expectation is that when it is time to start school in August, the new school will be ready to go.

He also said that, with this early notice, he hoped that families affected by the earlier release date for elementary students could start making plans accordingly.

In a construction update given at the meeting, the school board learned that about 85 percent of the masonry work on the project is now done. It was also reported that concrete was poured recently in the gymnasium area of the new school. 

The pre-kindergarten area of the new school is enclosed now and the roofing work is now in progress to enclose the rest of the new building in the next several days.

About 99 percent of the steel work at the new school is also done, it was reported. Framing crews are working long hours and some weekends now and walls are going up in the interior parts of the new building.

Electricians are also busy inside the building now roughing in the wiring for the heating and AC systems and general lighting. 

Plumbers are now equally busy inside the new school building working on restrooms and drains.

About 92 percent of the new school is considered “dried in’’ meaning that the drywall hanging work is about to get started, it was reported.

At its meeting, the school board approved a motion to hire Doyle Field Service, Inc. at a cost not to exceed $65,100, as a third-party company not associated with the builders, to review the installation and quality control testing of the heating and cooling systems to be installed in the new school to help make sure that the systems operate at their optimum levels.

A total of $15,600 of that $65,100 total is a contingency amount that is included to cover the cost of renting a generator and having an electrician available to operate it for a specified time period during the heat/AC commissioning work.

Two other companies also bid on the commissioning work – Outcome Construction Services LLC and Hoss and Brown Engineering.

Outcome bid the same price as Doyle Field. Hoss and Brown bid about twice as much (119,400 including the $15,600).

In another important move involving the new school, the school board approved a motion to approve a list of items totaling $163,881.85 that were originally planned for the new building but put on hold as alternate plans while the subsurface part of the construction work was taking place. These alternate plans were put on hold until it was determined there would not be any unforeseen subsurface problems or expenses.

The items put back in the plans now include:

*Installing epoxy flooring over 7,000 square feet where vinyl flooring was planned. Total net cost increase $34,380.

*Increasing the width of some 3,375 square feet of sidewalks from 5 feet wide to 8 feet wide. Total net cost inscrease $14,600.

*Adding wrought iron fence to the southwest corner of Fifth Street and Dakota Avenue. Total net cost increase $994.

Adding these items back into the plans also carries with it the following added costs, it was reported.

*Insurance for the work at 8.5 percent. Total net cost increase $11,834.64.

*Bond and Builder’s Risk at 2.1 percent and .15 percent. Total net cost increase $5,012.32.

*Nabholz fee at 5 percent. Total net cost increase $7,803.90.