WORTHINGTON — District 518’s multiple facilities projects continue to move forward, with bids for HVAC improvements coming in lower than expected and options for temporary office space under consideration.
Bidding opens this week for a planned addition and remodeling of the district office, as well as for a storage building. Both projects would start this summer, Superintendent John Landgaard told members of District 518 Board of Education's Operations Committee Tuesday.
Committee Chairman Mike Harberts asked how the school was coming with plans to relocate the employees in the district office during the remodeling process.
“I’ve been looking for an alternate site both in the district and in the community,” Landgaard said. “I have a couple options in-district, but they’re not realistically good options because we’ll potentially be displacing some of the programming that is out there.”
Board member Steve Schneider said he’d assumed the former West Elementary building would be used, as the Learning Center has its own building now.
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Landgaard said there are a few empty rooms at West, but some of the space is being used for equipment storage for preschool and Community Education, and some of that would need to be moved.
The committee also talked about the bids that came in for HVAC improvements to District 518 buildings, with the low bid of $1.5 million coming in significantly lower than anticipated, “probably a million dollars lower,” according to Landgaard.
Due to the change in cost, the whole project will be paid for with federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds.
Committee members also discussed an agreement with the city of Worthington to use the JBS Field House at no cost from 3 to 5:30 p.m. March 14 to April 15, when spring weather is volatile and athletics teams need to practice indoors.
“Hopefully by April 15 they’ll be able to get outside,” Landgaard said.
The bids for the HVAC project and the Field House usage agreement will both go before the full District 518 Board of Education at its next meeting, which is scheduled at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday in the Worthington High School band room.
