Inman design plan discussed

The Red Oak School Board has finalized plans and a timeline for renovations to Inman Elementary.
Recently, the board met with Chandler Green, an interior designer with Alley Poynter Macchietto Architecture, as well as Boyd Jones project manager Richard Johnson. Green said after discussion, plans for the renovations had been scaled down, per the board’s guidance.
“We really simplified what’s happening in this space, as well as using as much of the existing space that we can for your programming. The asked us to incorporate some additional storage into the space, and it was also a great need from principal Jane Chaillie’s perspective,” Green said. “We’ve added about 480 square feet to the building to help get the secure entry and better support your functions here. The North Commons has remained the same. People will come into the reception during the off hours. We also have plans for a work room, a conference room, a principal’s office, an assistant principal’s office, and a storage room. All of these could be interchangeable.”
The rooms, according to Green, are all sized similarly, so in the future, if there is a need to add an office or change the storage room to another conference room those changes could happen.
“The nurse’s space is mostly remaining, and we’re keeping a lot of those existing plumbing and rooms in place along here. As we’ve heard during this process, the nurse’s space is a little bit oversized, so reducing that space just a little bit will allow for the addition of another additional restroom, if needed, and storage space,” advised Green. “We’re still needing to confirm with local jurisdiction about the necessity of that restroom. We’re about 90% sure that that restroom is not going to be needed based on the square footage we’re adding, so if that’s the case, the space can all become storage. You’ll get 120 square feet rather than 84 square feet.”
Also discussed was work to the south drive. The board at a prior meeting expressed a desire to see an option that exited around Irene Court, up more at the top of the hill.
“We’re removing the additional parking on the outside, and having an ingress from Irene Court and coming down. Right now, it’s a 26-foot wide drive, so it could have two lanes. You could reduce it down to 20 feet. That would still keep that two lanes, a little bit tighter, but allow for the fire truck access to still happen and to have your two-way traffic happen along there. There will be a swale that will need to come in under the road to keep that water retainage appropriate and not get stuck on one side or the other. There’s a sewer line that we’re running nearby, but it shouldn’t cause any problems. We should be able to stay away from that side. If we do move forward with the new plan we’ll need a little bit of an additional survey, because we don’t quite have all of the information here from that current survey. It would be just a 

little bit of an added cost there, but nothing too drastic,” advised Green.
Green said Engineering Technologies, Inc. of Omaha also revised some of the costs for work on Inman’s HVAC system. One option was doing nothing at all and pursuing a wait and see approach, but there were other options at a reduced cost.
“Option two is to replace the compressor at the unit on the roof to bring back the consistency and redundancy to that system. It is an older system, so finding that compressor replacement may be a little bit tougher, but there’s an approximate $165,000 cost on there. There’s about a 10% install and adjacent work markup, so if you have to take ceiling tiles down, replace those, do cleanup, et cetera, they account for some of that along with the install. If you have local folks that can do some of this, that may fluctuate a little bit here and there, if they’re willing to work with the district, give you a discount or whatnot,” said Green.
Option three would be replacing the unit on the roof with new equipment and bringing new lines down, providing a new cooling unit, at a cost of up to $550,000. Option four would involve replacing the cooling units and then leaving the gym zone for a little bit later, at a cost of about $935,000. The final option is minimizing what’s in the mechanical room and installing new rooftop units at a cost of $1.5 million.
Superintendent Ron Lorenz said after discussions with the facilities committee, option two was favored.
“The thinking was that we could go in and replace all of this and spend a great deal of money or we could squeeze out another 10 years with the system we have by actually fixing some issues and taking some of the stress off of the existing system by restoring that redundancy that’s lacking with that compromised system,” stated Lorenz. “Everybody wants new and everybody wants all the bells and whistles, but what we have found, particularly with our HVAC systems, is that the bells and whistles are problematic because we don’t have people locally who can work on them. So we have to go a great distance to get people, and those folks are having a hard time employing technicians. So we have really struggled in some cases just to get the expertise here to help us.”
One of the considerations of the board was the installation of rooftop units. Board member Scott Bruce said they would be easier to service. Lorenz added that based on feedback, is that with the minor repair, the district could get at least five years out of the existing system, allowing five additional years of accumulating more PPEL or SAVE funding than the district currently had at its disposal.
If the district were to move forward with the current timeline, it would put the district at a construction completion beginning of August, 2026, with construction beginning in March of 2026. Some work would happen during the school year, but a lot of work would be happening over the summer to connect the renovations to the existing building, getting those things happening here. Approval of the project would be discussed at the December board meeting, with bid lettings in January.
The construction budget range for all renovations was around $3.2 million on the low side to about $3.3 million on the high side, and an additional $160,000 for work on the south drive. If the board opted for a bare bones, simple expansion to the cafeteria, it would reduce the costs by around $200,000. No matter what option was taken, the needed security measures would be included.
Lorenz said based on discussion, the board preferred the reduced footprint that includes a 1,205 square foot addition of the cafeteria and 480 square foot expansion of the entry and office area, and preferred to separate the HVAC and mechanical work from this project and address this in a phased manner.
The board also held final discussion on the potential renovations to the south drive.  Lorenz  said traffic flow is an issue in every single school district at every single elementary school across the United States.
“I know that rings hollow for the people here who are frustrated because they can’t travel down Eighth Street as quickly or as easily as they want to, but I think I have to say, just to remind people, we could spend millions to try to address that. We’re never going to fully address it, and I don’t know how much value we get for that money. It’s just kind of the nature of the beast. Unless you locate your elementary school outside the city limits, this is going to happen,” Lorenz said.
Before making a decision on updating the drive, Board Member Kathy Walker felt that the district should discuss the traffic issues with the City of Red Oak, the Red Oak Police Department, and the Red Oak Fire Department and see what option might be the best potential solution.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to get with those guys and just have a meeting. Get everybody to sit down and show them both options. They know the problem, everybody’s driven down that street. Maybe they’ll suggest we make it one way. I don’t even know if making it one way would solve the problem. But I don’t think it would hurt to sit down with everybody,” Walker said.
The board consensus was in favor of Walker’s proposal, as delaying the work on the drive would not affect the rest of the renovation project.
The board approved a motion to authorize Alley Poyner Macchietto Arcitecture to proceed with plans to include a 1,205-square-foot addition to the cafeteria, a 480-square-foot expansion of the security entry and office space, and to separate the HVAC and mechanical work from this project, and address those systems in a phased manner, with the south drive project to potentially be added.