Mike McNeff, Ed.D , Superintendent, Rugby Public Schools

You may have heard that the Ely Elementary Project cost has ballooned over the past 12 months since our first construction estimate. We have all been hit by inflationary increases in our work life and personal life, and this project is no different. In September 2021, the project was estimated to cost approximately $8.3 million. After our final bid opening on August 9, the project will now cost $10-10.6 million (I provided a range because this is dependent on cutting out portions of the project).

The school district has allocated $9.24 million in funding to the building project. This number includes $1.3 million of ESSER funding (one-time federal funding), $7.87 million of referendum funding (passed on 12/1/21), and we recently received a food service grant of $70,000 to pay for part of the kitchen equipment. This represents a funding gap of around $800,000 due to the reasons mentioned above.

These numbers do not include these important pieces of the project: 1) the academic wing remodel, 2) concrete paving and curbs for the northwest parking area, 3) playground relocation and turf, 4) and the wood floor for the gym, gym equipment and bleachers. These were all left out of the base bid and were added as alternates.

We have access to some additional funds, but it will prove to be difficult to come up with the level of funds described above. School districts do not have many options when it comes to generating additional revenue for a project like this. We may have to drastically reduce the scope of the project to get the project to fit into the available funds. We shared this information with the school board in June and it was decided that we move forward with the project and find a way to raise other funds to close the gap.

We held a meeting recently with the citizen’s committee that helped guide the referendum process last year. This committee is a representative group from the community of Rugby and surrounding areas. The committee suggested that we begin developing a capital campaign to fundraise to help bridge the funding gap mentioned above. Soon you will begin to hear about how you can contribute to help keep these critical components within the Ely Elementary Project. In the meantime, if you are interested in contributing to the project to help fund these important components of the project, please reach out to Mike McNeff or Dawn Hauck at 776-5201.