Summer fixes
QUINCY — Quincy School District officials will remodel the former High Tech High building into a new district office this summer, among other projects, at an estimated cost of about $842,000. Quincy School Board members reviewed the list of construction projects and how district officials will pay for them at the regular meeting Tuesday.
Board chair Chris Baumgartner said board members considered that an affordable way to get a new district office.
“We have a limited number of dollars right now without doing a capital levy or bond. So we’re trying to (prioritize them). We’ve said that we wanted to provide office space for our district leaders and personnel,” Baumgartner said. “That was our third important need that was on our list two years ago, and that’s the one that’s left. We weren’t in a position to build a new building, (so) we thought the best economic plan was to remodel High Tech High.”
Quincy superintendent Nik Bergman said in an earlier interview that the building, 404 First Ave. SW, will be remodeled into six offices and two conference rooms, with a new entry and new carpet and paint.
The existing district office is one of two QSD-owned buildings that will be sold. District Facilities Director Tom Harris said the proceeds from those will be used to plug a gap in capital projects funding for 2023 and to help pay for future construction projects.
Quincy has about $2.5 million in its construction fund, Harris said. About $2.2 million of that comes from the sale of district-owned property south of town, finalized in December.
The projects planned for 2023 actually exceed the amount of money available, Harris said. The sale of the two buildings would put the capital projects fund back in the black if they sell at the estimated price, according to the projections from district officials.
Summer projects include new equipment for the cooling system at Mountain View Elementary and upgrades to the entry at Monument Elementary. Concrete repairs are planned for Quincy High School and trees will be removed at Pioneer Elementary.
The project list also includes new equipment for the heating systems at Pioneer and Mountain View elementary schools, but Harris said those projects may be pushed back to 2024.
“We’re not sure where the bids are going to come in,” he said. “Right now, we have an estimate of $900,000 to $1.2 million. So we’re hoping that the bids are going to come in lighter, but we don’t know. The bid climate is kind of strange right now; we’re waiting on some of the projects until we get the bids back for the mechanical upgrades.”
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.
