Ely construction cost overruns concern school board
Cost overruns caused by inflation have impacted planned construction on Rugby’s Ely Elementary School campus, according to information presented to the Rugby Public School Board by Superintendent Mike McNeff on April 8.
“Good thing you’re all sitting down,” Board Chair Dustin Hager quipped as he introduced the project update.
As he presented informational slides on a screen to the board, McNeff said, “Just to give you a snapshot (of rising costs), Sept. 22, they projected $8.6 million at the time and we knew we had $9.1 million (budgeted for the project).”
McNeff said, of the September estimate, “At that time, we thought, ‘all right, we’re a little under budget a little bit, even though that didn’t include the special ed renovations at about half a million dollars, but we still felt we could make that work over a two-year project.’ “
“Feb. 18, we got an updated budget that went up to $9.4 million, based on more projections. Then, on April 6, they came back and said it’s going to be $10.1 million.”
McNeff said the sum originally budgeted came from $7.87 million raised in a bond issue passed by voters on Dec. 1, plus $1.3 million in funds from the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Act, or ESSER.
“So, you can kind of do the math there. It’s about a million dollars off,” McNeff said. “And who do you fault? It’s the market.”
“We planned for increased costs, but the bids came back higher than the increased costs,” McNeff said.
Board members discussed ways to cut the district’s budget in other areas to make more funds available for the project. Cutbacks included staffing and extracurricular activities.
Other ideas included scaling back the project itself in ways such as substituting blacktop in the parking lot for gravel.
“You could remove the gym update or the commons,” McNeff said. “I don’t know if we want to do that. I don’t think that’s a great idea. Those things are pretty critical to the project.”
“But you’ve got to cut a million dollars – even more than that, $1.5 million,” McNeff said, adding many parts of the project were needed and approved by voters in the school district on Dec. 1.
“So, we’re meeting with Consolidated Construction to brainstorm a little more. We met with the architect yesterday. They’ve got a list of things we could maybe delay,” McNeff said.
The board also considered ways to seek more funding to meet the gap, including sources from the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction.
Hager said funding from state sources could be complicated by the district’s absorption of the former Wolford School District in 2019, which gave the Rugby district a temporary financial boost and threw it off a funding formula the state used to determine the amount of money sent to the district.
Member Nick Schmaltz asked if the school board could hold a special meeting to discuss ways to cut the construction budget. The board agreed, but did not set a date for a special meeting.
District Business Manager Dawn Hauck reported the district’s general fund balance was up $270,000. Hauck noted some of the fund “is ESSER money, which will be transferred to the building fund. There’s $389,000 that has yet to be transferred,” Hauck said, adding some of the money from the general fund would pay for architectural fees for the project.
Hauck said the district was waiting for a legal consultation to assure compliance with regulations governing the transfers to make sure they conformed with ESSER and other requirements. Hauck said after the legal consultation and transfer, “then, you’ll have more accurate numbers of what’s in the general fund.”
Hauck noted the district special reserve fund, sinking fund and activity fund were “tracking well” and “normal.” She added the district’s hot lunch fund had a larger balance than in most years due to the federal COVID assistance providing all school lunches for free in the district.
Ely Elementary Principal Jason Gullickson told the board that students at the elementary school were busy with projects in the upper grades. Fifth graders were working on “Passion projects,” or projects devoted to activities they loved to do. Gullickson said the students presented their projects at a recent school open house. Sixth graders were also busy wrapping up capstone projects, which showcase skills and learning the students developed in their time at Ely Elementary.
Gullickson noted standardized tests would be given in language arts, math, and science in April, depending on grade levels.
Rugby High School Principal Jared Blikre gave highlights of state competitions where Rugby middle and high school students took top prizes. Blikre gave kudos to middle schooler Carter Teigen, who he said “came away with the top award in the individual competition of the state Math Counts contest in Bismarck.”
Blikre also congratulated students participating in competitions for the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), speech, and music programs on their success.
Blikre said groups of students would participate in speech and vocal music competitions. Seniors at Rugby High will present capstone projects at the school on April 19.
In other business, Leah Johnson, an English teacher at Rugby High, presented a learning continuum plan to allow students on non-traditional school tracks to receive an education. The plan included standards for students to meet as they progressed through each grade. Johnson said the plan resulted from recommendations by the North Dakota Department of Instruction after the North Dakota’s state legislature voted to reach more students.
Johnson noted the plan left lots of gaps for local districts to fill in.
“The problem with this, going forward, is there’s no real direction from DPI on how to do this,” Johnson said.
The board also voted to designate Rugby High School as the polling place for the June 7 school board election. Board Chair Dustin Hager said one candidate, Chad Ducscher, had filed to run.
The board also reviewed and approved a report on the district’s career and technical programs and the students whose needs they met. McNeff said the district issues the report to comply with requirements for the federal Carl D. Perkins school funding program.
The board also reviewed a contract for school bus service with Hartley’s Bus Sales Rugby. McNeff said the contract reflected pressure caused by inflation, which included a $15,000 fuel surcharge added in the current school year. The board voted to approve the contract.
McNeff told the board the district had heard concerns voiced by parents working as school staff who had difficulty finding daycare for their children. After advertising for a daycare director, McNeff said the district shelved an idea to open a daycare center in the school district for staff to use.
“Based on the applications, we didn’t feel like we wanted to fill the position at that point,” McNeff added.
McNeff said he had been in talks with Heart of America Medical Center CEO Erik Christenson and Jeff Duchscher of Rugby Manufacturing to discuss “a much larger collaboration” among the three top employers in Rugby. McNeff suggested in the meantime, the hospital’s daycare, Kids Next Door, might have open slots for the children of RPSD teachers.
“That should help with parents. We do still need a couple of slots with (children of staff), particularly one we just hired,” McNeff added.
Board members also discussed the Be Legendary School Board Training workshop they attended with the Carrington School Board. Two Carrington Board representatives, Kevin Wolsky and Chris Kuehn, attended the Rugby meeting on April 8.