The Storm Lake Times: Top Story

Board sets out to rehab high school over 4 years

Team moves on May 25 to assess facility

Plan to be in place by fall

by jake kurtz

The Storm Lake Board of Education formally approved the hiring Monday of I&S Group to perform a high school building evaluation.

The move is the latest step in the district’s plan to nail down precise cost estimates for a renovated high school and how to proceed with plans to construct a new performance auditorium.

“We will try to move this study along as quickly as we can,” Supt. Carl Turner said.

Turner said I&A Group hopes to get a team of architectural, civil, structural, mechanical and electrical professionals into the high school on May 25, one day after school dismisses for the summer. That team will assess the general condition of the facility ranging from thermal efficiency and structural integrity to quality of the roof.

The high school’s mechanical, electrical and heating and ventilation systems will also be intensely evaluated.

“The work performed on site will be limited to nondestructive visual review of existing systems,” I&S Group senior architect Mark Cipos informed the district. “A report will be provided which summarizes our findings.”

The above work, classified as Phase I of a two-part building review, will cost the district $19,000.

Phase II of the project will result with I&S Group providing the district with three possible architectural concepts and floor plans to meet the growing Storm Lake district’s needs moving forward.

Discussion sessions with school administrators, high school staff, and focus groups will occur between the two project phases.

“We would meet with focus groups and determine how to modify the building to meet the needs of students,” Turner said.

“Based on the input from this meeting, we will develop and document a final concept,” Cipos noted. “Our design team will also prepare a preliminary estimate of project costs associated with this final concept.”

Phase II project work carries a $24,500 price tag. Turner said he hoped any possible building renderings could be complete and reviewable for the board by August.

“It would be good to come into the fall with some concepts,” Turner said. “A key component will be seeing what it’s going to look like.”

Neither Turner nor board members would provide a guess as to how much they expect a high school renovation effort to cost. Turner did say he expected construction to likely occur in phases over “three or four years” so the building could remain in use.

Built in 1928, South School served as the district’s high school until the current building opened in 1962.

“I get a chuckle about how many people in the community still call it the new high school,” Board President Ed McKenna said of the current venue on Tornado Dr.

“South School was only viewed as a suitable high school for 34 years,” Turner added. “Meanwhile, the building right now has been used for 50. It’s still a good building, it just needs to be modernized.”

Once some solid cost estimates are on the table for a high school renovation, the district’s auditorium planning committee can proceed with intentions of providing the board with a building recommendation.

Originally, the auditorium committee hoped to hand the board a recommendation by June after several months of collaboration with I&S Group. That plan was delayed until the high school building study could be completed.

Early building design concepts for a 1,000-seat auditorium at the high school campus that includes a balcony and 53,000 sq. feet of space have peaked at $13 million, which district officials have said isn’t feasible and not as imperative as high school improvements. Those current cost estimates could be sliced considerably, Cipos and fellow I&S project coordinator Diane Behn have said.

The Storm Lake district has a bonding capacity of approximately $30 million. The three-year-old elementary school on the hook for roughly $17 million and it’s still unclear as to the future of South School, which the City of Storm Lake is considering as a possible community center and public library, and if money will be needed there.