The Wessington Springs School District Board of Education met Monday afternoon for its regular December meeting with a wide variety of agenda items on the table for discussion.
New 13-passenger van
Bids were opened for a 13-passenger van, which has been a topic of discussion for many months at the board level. The van will eliminate the need to use more than one vehicle (currently the school uses two Suburbans) to shuttle students to events and activities. Difficulties commonly arise around finding an additional driver, which also incurs additional cost. The board had budgeted $80,000 for the van and the bid came in at $73,044. The board approved the purchase and expects it to be delivered in the next several months.
Board vacancies for 2025
Four board positions will become vacant in 2025 due to expiration of terms. The oneyear term of Scott Kolousek (completing one year from former board chair Todd Grohs’ term) will expire, as well as the terms of Darrick Van Dyke, Derek Zastrow and Sara Thompson.
If an election is needed, the school will once again hold them in conjunction with city elections in the spring.
Architect contract approved for Vo-Ag Shop Scope of Project Development
Built in 1969-70, the vo-ag shop has served thousands of students over the years but is in need of repair. The board discussed hiring Ciavarella Design Architects to develop a full scope of needed work and cost to repair the aging shop.
With a rough estimate of $1 million to take on the needed repairs and update the facility, the total architectural fee would come in at $80,000. The board discussed hiring Ciavarella for a maximum of $12,000 to draw up documents so the board can evaluate the full scope of the project. The $12,000 paid for this initial work will go toward the total bill of architecture services if the project is taken on.
“What we’re talking about tonight is whether or not we want to pay them an hourly rate to get us to the point where we can decide if we want to start the project or not,” said Wessington Springs School Superintendent Dr. Michael Ormsmith. “The worst case scenario is $12,000. If we approve that, the architects and engineers will come out to the shop and meet with Brady (Duxbury) on December 19th or 20th.”
Board chair Dustin Weber shared some potential funding sources with the board.
“Next year in our capital outlay fund, we're going to have about $1.8 million and if we don't use all of our capital outlay money up this year, you know, the extra that we have that's going to be on top of that also,” said Weber. “So it is very doable for next year where we would pay for it. There’ll be no loans, no raising taxes. So if anyone asks, ‘are my taxes going to go up,’ or ‘are you guys going to get a loan,’ the answer is no and no.”
Vo-ag teacher Brady Duxbury was in attendance at the meeting and the board asked if he would like to add anything about the state of the shop.
“I had liquid dripping on my desk. When I went up top to check what it was, my foot went through the floor. The floor at the top of the classroom is in bad shape. We are also limited on capacity to expand because the electrical is full,” Duxbury began. “When we have a north wind it comes into the classroom. We also have poor ventilation. The shop facility was built incredibly well in 1969 and 1970. The people who built it had the foresight to build such a large facility and they need to be commended. It just probably hasn’t gotten the maintenance it deserved over that long period of time. ”
Duxbury also shared with the board that he has 77 kids go through the voag shop every two days and the number one thing students complain about is temperature.
Following the discussion with Duxbury, the board moved to approve the hourly contract with Ciavarella Design Architects to develop a full scope of needed work and cost to repair the aging shop.