Cape school district begins improvement projects in wake of bond issue

Renovation projects at the Cape Girardeau School District are underway as officials plan and organize districtwide improvements funded by a $20 million bond issue approved by voters in April.

"We've been meeting every week as a design team and going through project schedules," said Neil Glass, assistant superintendent of administrative services. "We're really trying to get a handle on what projects fit where and how they're going to be bid out and the design phase of everything. It's a lot of basically grunt work at this time without actually going out with the hammer and nails. But that's where we're headed."

Renovations include larger projects at Central Junior High School and the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center, as well as smaller projects throughout the district.

The projects are the second phase of a facility plan developed in 2008 and 2009. The first phase, which included projects such as replacing Franklin Elementary School, was addressed with a $40 million bond issue in 2010.

Bids for some of the smaller projects were approved at Monday's school board meeting, where board members authorized officials to negotiate a contract for HVAC controls for the Career and Technology Center and Blanchard Elementary. The cost will not exceed $224,748, and the project will be completed by Johnson Controls.

In the 2010 bond issue, the district converted 80 percent of its buildings to Johnson automated HVAC controls, officials said. The second phase will address the remaining three buildings, with the last building to be completed as part of the Central Junior High School project.

"Basically, that is a web-based system that helps us track our heating and ventilation systems and make sure that they're functioning properly," Glass said. "It helps us with preventative maintenance and also with our energy efficiency of the buildings."

The board also approved a contract be negotiated with Cape Electrical Supply for lighting at the Central High School baseball and softball fields, with the cost not to exceed $133,350.

"They're going to deliver the poles and deliver the lights, and my crew will be in charge of installation of those," Glass said.

A contract with Hanson Sports, not to cost more than $119,880, will be negotiated to construct outdoor bleachers at the junior high school football field, which will include 679 seats and a handicap ramp.

"That will replace the older bleacher system that's currently there and has been a safety issue for some time," Glass said.

As part of the two larger projects, upgrades at the junior high will include moving administrative offices to the old gymnasium that sits in the middle of the building. The project, which will cost about $10 million, also will house other student services, science labs in the basement -- that will double as a storm shelter -- and a new practice gymnasium.

The Career and Technology Center expansion, priced at about $5.9 million, will allow health-care services and more to be provided at the center. The larger projects will take longer to design, Glass said, so his office is focusing on the smaller projects to give the architect and engineer time to design the buildings.

"Especially at the junior high with all the renovations that are going to take place," Glass said. "They really have to peel back that onion and figure out what's what and how to make those connections. We're doing some of the civil stuff right now -- looking at the layout of the land and trying to figure out how we're going to tie these buildings into each other. But that's the preliminary steps to make those projects work."

The smaller projects school officials are focused on include adding a bus lane at Clippard Elementary School, a roof project at the middle school and tennis court upgrades.

"That's probably the next wave that's going to go out for bid," Glass said.

klamb@semissourian.com

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