The Chippewa Falls school district anticipates bidding and construction on referendum projects to begin in spring of 2019, a district official said Tuesday.
The three projects are in a “design phase,” district financial manager Chad Trowbridge said Tuesday at a school board meeting.
The $65 million referendum passed in April will pay for a new Stillson Elementary and remodels and additions for Chippewa Falls Middle School and Chippewa Falls Senior High School.
The district will work with architects for schematic design in the fall of 2018. Trowbridge anticipates bids to open in March, he said.
Although in June Trowbridge told the board construction costs are trending at 18 percent higher than in 2017, calling the number “staggering,” school board president Dave Czech said Tuesday the projects’ price tag will not run past $65 million.
“Our referendum was passed for a certain dollar amount,” Czech said. “We cannot and will not exceed that referendum.”
If construction costs lower as March closes in, the district may explore “alternative bid packages,” Trowbridge said in June.
Soil tests from the future Stillson Elementary site in the town of Lafayette were conducive to the planned construction, Trowbridge said Tuesday.
As a result of those soil tests, the new school will have a conventional septic system.
School board member Steve Olson, who sits on the referendum project executive committee, said the district teams’ designs for the middle school and Stillson are “nailed down,” while the high school plans are “coming together.”
“This process is giving staff, leadership and administration a chance to interject some of their feelings,” Olson said.
Construction work on the high school and middle school may be done in phases, Olson said.
Booster Club hits million mark
Chippewa County Judge Steve Gibbs, president of the Chippewa Falls Senior High School Athletic Booster Club, presented a check for more than $138,000 Tuesday on behalf of the club to the school’s new principal, Donna Goodman.
The booster club hit a key milestone in 2018, Gibbs said.
“We’ve raised over a million dollars in 17 years,” Gibbs said. “That’s what we’re really proud of there.”
The club’s Spring Extravaganza event alone raised $118,000, Gibbs said.
The club contributed $16,000 for a metal score booth, scoreboard and mic system at Chippewa Falls’ Casper Park.
Czech praised the club’s purchases of athletic equipment, but highlighted the club’s help for disadvantaged students.
“To me, the more important thing is the fact we’re never going to not let a kid play a sport … or eat a lunch because they can’t afford it,” Czech said. “Providing kids in this community with an equal opportunity is huge.”
The board was also slated to discuss the district’s onsite health clinic at its Tuesday meeting.
