School District Contracts With Design Firm For Elementary Facilities Project

The Glenwood Community School District has taken its first step in a potentially $50 million plan to overhaul its elementary school facilities.

During a special meeting Nov. 30, the Glenwood Board of Education voted unanimously to contract with Clark and Enersen, a Lincoln, Neb. design firm to spearhead its intent to address the district’s elementary school needs. According to Glenwood Superintendent Devin Embray, the district plans to put a $40 to $50 million facilities general obligation bond before voters in March 2024.

But before that can happen, Clark and Enersen will be tasked with handling the pre-bond and post-bond programming, conceptual design and construction supervision of the district’s facilities plan. That plan will include renovation and classroom additions at the current Northeast Elementary School, renovation of a building on the Glenwood Resource Center campus for a third through fifth grade elementary facility, improvements to current West Elementary School and the installation of a geo-thermal heating and air conditioning system at the middle school.

The proposed repurposing of the vacated West building would have Kids Place, the district’s pre-school program, moving into that building along with the district’s central offices, it’s alternative high school and the print, technology and food services and possibly a second regional Area Education Agency center.

Embray said the hiring of Clark and Enersen is just one of several hoops the projects will have to jump through over the next 18 months. Firms like these, he added, are typically brought on projects to do programming layouts and pre-bond work to get a visual image of the project in front of patrons who will be voting on it.

The firm was one of eight to answer Glenwood’s requests for proposals. Embray said Clark and Enersen rose to the top with its willingness to work within the districts’ tentative plans and to have “skin in the game” of passing the general obligation bond.

“The are basically pro-bono for anything pre-bond,” he said. “If the bond result is positive, then they are on for the duration of the project. If the bond campaign is not positive, we walk and they walk.”

With a design firm in place, just exactly what course the facilities plan will take remains up in the air.

The district’s initial long range facilities plans included building a new third through fifth grade elementary to replace West Elementary. Gov. Kim Reynolds’ decision to shutter the Glenwood Resource Center next year pivoted Glenwood’s to the possibility of renovating the Meyer uilding on the GRC campus to replace West Elementary in lieu of a new building.

Glenwood has been in talks with the state about maintaining its presence on the hill since the spring.

The GRC campus currently houses the district’s central office, Head Start program and its Kids Place pre-kindergarten and daycare in the same building at 103 Central. Prior to that the campus housed the Glenwood Middle School in the Meyer Building for 18 years until the opening of the new high school in 2009.

Earlier this fall, HDR, Inc., an Omaha-based architectural and engineering firm, began a feasibility study of the GRC campus to determine a master plan for the property moving forward. As part of that study, HDR is working closely with the school district to determine if the Meyer Building is an “appropriate” fit for a school presence.

Embray said HDR and the state will make the decision on the Meyer Building “sooner than later,” possibly as early as January.

“If they bless that the state will begin working on whatever it is they need to do to deed that (building) to us,” he said. “According to HDR having a school on the campus would be a huge positive to repopulate the campus.”

If the GRC campus building is not deemed to be suitable for Glenwood’s needs, Embray said he’s not sure the district has the financial capacity to build an entirely new building.

“It might be something where we have to do a plan B and go in a different direction for West to see what improvements we could make on the current campus and then an ancillary building with our daycare in it on our campus somewhere and not the GRC campus.”

In a previous interview, Embray estimated a $50 million bond would add approximately .75 cents to the school district’s current $16.10 tax levy rate.

With a contract in hand, Clark and Enersen will likely begin over the next few weeks by having discussions with staff about needed improvements at Northeast, a building  layout Embray called “antiquated” and ill suited for the district’s needs