On schedule, but quality of some work questioned
By Bert Lehman
The building projects related to the referendum passed in the Clintonville School District are moving forward on schedule.
That was the message Superintendent Troy Kuhn relayed to the Clintonville School Board at its July 25 meeting.
However, Kuhn also told the board he had to talk to some of the contractors about some of the quality of work being done.
“I did have a couple of heart to heart (talks) with some contractors and their quality of work that they’ve been doing,” Kuhn said. “I did some walk throughs. I called them in and said ‘Yeah, this isn’t acceptable.’ So, they’re aware of it.”
Dellwood building
The possibility of adding a kitchen, HVAC unit, and doing other reconstruction to the Dellwood building has been put on hold, Kuhn said.
“When they went to go figure out what type of electricity was coming into that building, we got a really, really bad answer,” Kuhn said. “So, our No. 1 focus is, what do we want to do with that building?”
This includes determining if the building needs two-phase or three-phase electrical.
Kuhn said the addition of cameras and door locks in the building can move forward because they don’t require a large amount of power.
Updates to the playground will begin this fall.
District office
The updates planned for the district office have also been put on hold, Kuhn said.
“Right now, the plan was to build another office in there, however there’s some conflicting opinions on the current HVAC system,” Kuhn said.
The debate is whether the system for the district office can be fixed or needs to be replaced.
High school, middle school
Kuhn said all the construction is on schedule for the high school.
He said the construction taking place at the middle school is 95%-99% done.
“There’s a couple little things that they’ll need to get fixed,” Kuhn said.
He added that the district has received its occupancy permit for the middle school.
“That allows staff to start to go in there to start setting up their rooms,” Kuhn said.
Rec Center
Kuhn said the addition to the Rec Center is “basically done.”
He said he didn’t like the way the cameras were installed in the Rec Center because the cameras didn’t cover all areas.
“I thought that was a hot place for high liability, so they’re going to be redoing the cameras in that area,” Kuhn said.
Work is also being done on the aerobic room, he said.
“It looks pretty nice in there,” Kuhn said.
Kuhn said the district is still unsure what to do with the swimming pools in the Rec Center.
“We really would like to update the walking surface, however, we’re at a standstill because if you’re going to do the walking surface, do you do everything?” Kuhn asked.
The district will hire a pool consultant to determine why rust stains have developed in part of the pool.
Kuhn added that if the pools are redone, the best way to do that is to be determined.
Board member Laurie Vollrath asked if the hot tub has been fixed. Kuhn said it has not been fixed yet.
Door access
“One of the things we talked about at our admin meeting is, if we would have an active shooter, if we would have something going on, we can control every building offsite,” Kuhn said. “So, we can go over to the elementary school and control the high school. The speakers, the doors, everything. So, that’s a huge positive,” Kuhn said.
Door signs, safety
Kuhn said doors have been assigned new numbers in the new portion of the high school building.
The district is not paying an outside contractor to make the door signs because technical education teacher Bert Lord is making the new door signs. The board had previously approved contracting hours for Lord.
Kuhn told the board they sometimes are concerned about some things that haven’t been completed yet, but he doesn’t control everything.
“Those things worry me because I want the school to look really nice on day one,” Kuhn said. “The reality is, there’s probably going to be some stuff that isn’t done.”