Construction At Hermann Elementary On Schedule, School Board Awards Two Bids

By Jessica Nelson

During a special school board meeting Thursday night, the Hermann school board was told early construction projects at Hermann elementary are currently on schedule and no action would be needed on the budget until the June 10 meeting.

Nick Godat, architect for the elementary and middle school construction projects, updated the board on the on-going work at the elementary building. Godat said crews had begun removing the mastic [glued] portion of tile on the second floor with about five to 10 percent done as of  Thursday. An air quality test was scheduled for noon Friday; the test is required before other contractors would be able to come in and begin their work.

Though crews would not be working at the elementary on Monday due to the Memorial Day holiday, Godat said they would be working 10 hour days for the rest of the week to stay on schedule. Overall, he said, everything related to construction and remodeling was on schedule.

Bids were awarded by the board for electrical and carpentry work at the elementary building. Electric Unlimited from St. Louis was awarded the project after bidding $25,900; their bid was $16,100 lower than Grannemann Sales & Service and $28,595 lower than Brune Electric.

For carpentry work, Egan Building Group won the project with a base bid of $22,847 and an alternate bid of $721. The alternate bid covers installation of a button lock on the inside of doors which currently have an ADA lever handle. The overall bid includes 23 doors with hardware [lock sets] and 13 doors with hardware only. By installing the new lock sets, doors will be equipped with a key hole on the outside of the door handle and a push-button lock on the inside. Superintendent Dr. Chris Neale said the new lock system would allow teachers to put their rooms into lockdown mode more quickly if it was ever needed.

In a brief superintendent's report, Neale gave highlights to where the district's budget stands right now, saying the year-to-date budget is within one-half percent of being balanced. The projected revenue for fiscal year 2010-2011 is projected to be around $10.665 million, according to Neale's figures, roughly $195,000 less than the 2009-2010 year. It was noted that bond sales were not figured into the 2010-2011 revenue numbers.

Neale said he would ask for action on the budget during the June 10 regular school board meeting.

Neale also mentioned that the Hermann School Board had won the Educational Leadership award, one of six public school boards statewide.

During executive session, the board voted to hire 25 teachers and staff for the summer school session. They were:

Shelly Stutzman
Andrea See
Wendy Noelke
Lynn Bucher
Becky Summers
Anne Worland
Ann Leicht
Angie Walter
Jennifer Burns
Trish Epple
Maggie Stiegman
Amy Unnerstall
Stacy Deutschmann
Rick Emmons
Jeremy Hosick
Rosie Branson
Toni Daller
Ketha Bounds
Amy Schebaum
Chris Leibach
Andy Emmons
Judy Stock
Rose Gloe
Mary Heaney
Gigi Mueller