A new district office is in the works for Stanley-Boyd.
Gathered Monday, Sept. 28, the Stanley-Boyd Area School Board approved a contract with CESA 10 for construction management services for Phase 3 construction and remodel. The proposed relocation of the district office would move it near the pool by the south entrance, said proposal including the addition of a secure entrance and remodel of the existing district office into classroom and office space.
“We talked about this last week at the Conversation meeting,” District Superintendent Jeff Koenig shared with the board Sept. 28. “This is contracting with them for the fees to help work through the district office relocation or remodeling project. It all is in line with what we had talked about last week.”
Board Member Chad Verbeten had a question.
“When you put it all together what percentage of the project are they?” He asked.
“It works out to be about two percent,” Koenig replied, clarifying that this was on costs.
“Two percent—we talked about this in the elementary remodel. That was money well spent, because they saved us two percent,” Verbeten replied. Shared as an example of saved money prior to the elementary remodel was CESA administration of the bus loop, where CESA watched asphalt density, thereby prolonging blacktop life compared with elsewhere.
Motion to approve the contract for construction management services with CESA 10 for the district office was made by Verbeten and seconded by Toni Seidl.
Also approved at the September school board meeting was a $103,750 architectural and engineering bid from LHB for the district office relocation. LHB previously designed the upper elementary remodel.
Totaling 5.19 percent of the total projected project cost, the approved low bid on the district office relocation includes travel, miles, postage and state submittal of the plans, pegged between $3,600 to $4,000.
“Again this was discussed at last week’s Conversation meeting. This doesn’t mean anything is happening. It means this is the firm you’re choosing for plans,” Koenig told the board.
Wendel and River Valley Architects (RVA) also submitted bids on the project.
Verbeten made a note on why the district office was relocating before the vote was taken.
“I think we should put in the minutes why we’re doing what we’re doing,” he said. “It seems to me we talked about this on Monday night. That one of the things there seemed to be consensus on during our meetings with regard to the referendum was that people thought the District Office should be at the front of the building for a variety of reasons. The main one was safety, and I think we’re responding to what the community asked us to do.”
Motion to approve the LHB bid on district office relocation was made by Board Member Denise Hoffstatter, seconded by Seidl, all present in favor.
Also in news from September school board meeting is the projected mill rate, a budget hearing with final numbers scheduled for Monday Oct. 28.
Still unofficial as of yet, the 2024-25 mill rate at Stanley-Boyd is currently projected to be $5.94 per thousand dollars in property value, or 88 cents lower than last year’s levy. The new projected mill rate will raise $3,568,395 in education funding.
The change comes as a fix from last year’s legislative session kicks in, raising per pupil state aid at Stanley-Boyd to $11,000, adjusting the corresponding local levy ask.
Equalized state aid for 2024-25 is estimated at $9,242,446.
“I think that estimate is high,” Koenig shared of numbers still in flux. Affecting state aid was the fact that the district had kept money in its fund balance.
As for the enrollment picture at Stanley-Boyd, it’s up, the third Friday in October counting an additional 5.3 FTE (full time equivalent) students as compared to last year. Held as due to open enrollment, the district has 101 open enrolling in, and 101 students open enrolling out.
As for those open enrolling out, “it’s people who move in here who want to keep going to their old school district,” Stanley-Boyd Schools Superintendent Jeff Koenig told the school board Monday, Sept. 23.
A formal budget hearing is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 28 at 8:00 p.m. in the high school library, at which time the levy will be finalized.