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By Mark McCoy
Last Updated: July 07, 2009
Making improvements to Ellsworth Elementary School without disrupting student class time was the prime topic of discussion July 2 at a board meeting of the Ellsworth-Kanopolis-Geneseo School District.
Meeting with board members were John Plumer of Wilson and Co., Salina, general contractor, and Ron Cheney of Cheney Construction of Manhattan, the project’s low bidder.
The two met this past week in Salina with Superintendent Ken Arnhold to hammer out a schedule, which will allow students to remain in the elementary school.
“My understanding is that the administration would not like to move the students at any time, and have the contractors piecemeal this thing in,” Plumer said. “That’s not how he (Cheney) bid this. The way he makes money is by coming in and getting the job done by the completion date.”
Several options were discussed:
• Allow Cheney to work on a wing of the school — about nine classrooms — and move students to Kanopolis Middle School or Ellsworth High School. EES/KMS principal Eric Reid rejected the idea.
Arnhold said Reid “pointed out that if we did that, we would have to transport students for library time, meals, recess, computer time and all sorts of activities.”
• Have Cheney replace air ducts and make preparations to install the new heating and air conditioning units before suspending work when school starts in August. The school district would store project materials until work resumed in summer 2010. Such a time delay would add to the costs of labor.
• Allow Cheney to work on two or three classrooms at a time. Before school begins, the contractor would prepare the roof and run ductwork — the noisiest part of construction. Just before students returned from summer vacation, sound barriers would be built between active classrooms and those being remodeled.
“We could schedule the demolition of the windows before or after school to reduce noise,” Cheney said. “The replacement of the windows would be done by screwguns. Welding isn’t as noisy and could be done during the day.”
Plumer suggested the kitchen, dining areas and entrance doors be finished first.
“Do you have any idea how long the classrooms would be down?” asked board member Gina McGowan.
“About two weeks,” Cheney responded. “We do a lot of school work, not just during the summer, but year round. We’ve not really had any complaints about operating while school is on. We are familiar with the need to keep things quiet.”
Plumer said rebidding the project could increase its cost if prices increase before next summer. At present, building costs have fallen by as much as 15 percent because of the weak economy.
“We could begin the work and then evaluate how the construction is affecting the classrooms after we have a couple of them done to see if we can continue,” Cheney said.
He promised to provide cost estimates on such a plan by Tuesday, July 7, when board members are to meet again to decide on an option.
Read the July 9 edition of the I-R for more on the Ellsworth School District board meeting.
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