Brandon Twp.- The school board unanimously approved French Associates to provide architectural and engineering services for several projects on a district wish list.
By state mandate, anytime the district has construction or renovation costs of more than $25,000, an architect or engineer must be involved. The Rochester-based company will begin planning the renovations on science classrooms, upgrades of the high school heating system and paving of the road over the bridge between the high school and middle school.
The proposal includes all items on the wish list, compiled by boardmembers after it was projected the district will have savings of around $3.5 million from a nearly $73 million bond that voters approved in 2006 for construction of a new elementary school, the purchase of buses and capital improvements throughout the district.
Currently, the district has about $28 million in a fund balance, but Superintendent Lorrie McMahon clarified during Monday’s school board meeting that the money is dedicated to be spent. The $3.5 million that is being allocated for additional projects, including new tennis courts and a new roof for the high school, came mainly from the athletic complex coming in under budget.
‘We are finishing (the new) elementary and it has to be finished before we can put in the technology,? McMahon said. ‘Only a third of the technology is done. The checks haven’t been written.?
McMahon said that while the district could use the $3.5 million to pay down the debt, it would have a very small impact on each individual taxpayer.
‘Most of the things in that $3.5 million are things people would like to see done,? she said.