Stanton students start off the year with no construction delays

Renovations to the Stanton School District did not affect Stanton’s first day of school.
Stanton superintendent David Gute said crews hit the target of project completion by Aug. 24, allowing the district to hold classes this week.
Gute said substantial completion was made to the music room and Title room. The former nurse’s office has been converted to a TAG room.
“We were given access to the spaces on Aug. 21, allowing us to move things back in ahead of the first day of school. We also were able to move things back into the old office area and some neighboring classrooms. The state fire marshall did a walk through of the building on Aug. 20,” said Gute.
Because of the ongoing construction, the open house for the district was held at the neighboring Viking Center.
“We wanted people to have a space to drop off necessary supplies but at the time of the open house, we weren’t ready to have people in the building,” commented Gute.
The old office area has been set up with temporary walls, but Gute said there will be some workarounds. The walls are not soundproofed, meaning people may have to leave if there’s going to be a private conversation taking place.
“We’ve talked about configurations, and we might change our minds more than once, but the thought is that maybe Stephanie Burke and I would have the offices in that old office area, then we’d have another desk so someone can come in and sit if there’s a private conversation going on. Privacy is kind of important down here. Also, the TAG room will only be used a quarter of the time on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so there’s space on the back half of the old office area that would maybe be available to go back and have a little private conversation too,” stated Gute.
Additionally, the district will likely be moving forward with different phones for the upcoming year.
“We are looking at a new phone system. Our existing phone system isn’t very good. So we’re looking at getting a VoIP phone system. It’s a little under $8,000. We’re doing some research on that,” advised Gute.
Recently, a change order was issued for the fire alarm system which generated some slight concern.
“The fire alarm system was supposed to be right around $100,000. We received a change order for the system for around $11,000. I talked to the contractor and said, if it’s $11,000 change order, something was missed somewhere. Percentage-wise, that’s a pretty big percentage. I was told the fire marshal got information regarding the fire alarm system and the contractors were told that they had to add additional things. I reiterated that likely meant someone missed something somewhere.
I’m not saying we don’t owe that, I’m just questioning that a little bit at this point.”
Despite the change, Gute said the district is still well within its contingency budget for the remainder of the project.
“Even with all the change orders approved, we still have about $69,000. When I asked about what we could expect down the road, they said that by this point in the project, they’ve progressed far enough in the remodel that they’ve established most of what is different from the original quote and that we should be comfortable with having a remaining $69,000 moving forward,” explained Gute.
In the exterior, Gute said they had made good progress on the renovation as well.
“The crane was out of that area by the end of last week. They got done putting steel up on a new addition, and we got a sidewalk up for travel as well.”
Due to the construction, the district will be going from two drop off points to one, and to start the year, they’ll be using the main entrance where the administrative offices used to be.
“It might be trial and error a little bit. The biggest worry is getting backup not on our street, but at the street where the Casey’s is. There’s times where you’re almost back on that street. We could pull the busses around and down the hill between the school and the Viking Center, but buses also have to drop in front of the Viking Center in certain circumstances. Not the first two weeks, but after the year gets going. We’ve had some bussing meetings, and we’ve worked on a plan. On the first day, there were parents wanting to take pictures and there was a lot of congestion to work around that first day,” Gute advised.
As for the gymnasium, Gute said that HVAC project was largely completed as well, and only missing one key component.
All the duct work is in there now. We’re just waiting on the unit itself. It’s one massive unit. Also, while the crane for the steel work is leaving, the crews will have to bring in a crane again to lift the HVAC unit on the roof. It will tie up the street, so we’ll either have to close the street when it happens or hope that it’s on a Monday when school isn’t in session,” said Gute.
Gute added that there have been crews of 20 to 30 workers on a regular basis, which has helped move the project along and keep it on track.
“Ceilings have been installed quickly. The floor is in, I believe, almost every room. There are a few spaces where we’re just going to paint the concrete. Everything has flooring, and if there’s no tile, it’s because they’re working on something in the ceiling. They’re pulling wire on the new fire alarm system, so we’ll run on the old fire alarm system until everything gets switched over to the new system. As for the bathrooms, they couldn’t get the proper herringbone tile in in time, so they’ve modified the work on the bathroom and we will get a credit on that,” Gute commented.
At a meeting of the Stanton School Board on Aug. 12, a number of project-related action took place.
The board discussed and approved a resolution appointing a paying agent, bond registrar, and transfer agent, as well as a transfer agent agreement.
“It’s basically to allow the money to move between the different entities that need to. So we’re going to get money. There’s a bank in Des Moines that’s going to be able to hold our money, and then it’s going to be able to pay our money to the other bank that loans us our money long term,” explained Gute.
The board also approved a tax exemption certificate, which meant the district paid no taxes on the bond, and a continuing disclosure certificate, meaning the finances will be reviewed each year by an outside entity.
The last business involving the project was a resolution amending the resolution authorizing the issuance of not to exceed $5,325,000 general obligation school bonds, series 2026, and levying a tax for the payment thereof, adopted April 8.
“The last resolution was asking if we were sure we wanted to sell the bonds. It was the last chance for the district to decline, but the board naturally approved the resolution,” Gute said.