Lewis Central outlines bond project timeline, approves $127,000 in parking-lot and court design fees

The Lewis Central Community School District Board of Education received a bond-planning update and approved design fees and bond-administration agreements at its Jan. 13 meeting.

Superintendent (name not specified) told the board the timeline presented is preliminary and that the facilities committee will review it before the Feb. 3 board meeting. The work list included a high-school safety vestibule and office reconfiguration, parking-lot and pavement repairs at multiple campuses, relocation and replacement of deteriorated tennis courts, roof work at the high school, LED lighting, and mechanical and fire-alarm projects.

Immediate actions and reasoning: The board voted to approve three design-fee contracts totaling $127,000 to produce stamped engineering and architectural plans required for competitive bidding: - Tennis-court relocation design: $30,000 (includes flood-plain development permit cost estimated at $2,000). - Titan Hill parking-lot and queuing-lane design: $35,000. - High-school parking and front-entry redesign (curbing, pavement and circulation): $60,000. Superintendent comments noted that some projects will be phased, estimates will change once architects complete design work, and certain projects (notably the high-school exit lane) depend on ongoing city coordination.

Flooding and storm-sewer work: The district will map storm sewers using a camera/robot to locate a suspected connection between storm-drain lines and sanitary sewers that staff believe is feeding middle-school flooding. The mapping work informed the decision to delay certain middle-school design work until the system is mapped; the district will not finalize design-fee requests for that middle-school area until mapping results are back.

School safety and entry systems: Superintendent described planned changes to the high-school front entry including a new safety vestibule, moving the principal’s office, relocating associate principals for visibility, and placing the dean or a future SRO closer to the front for better sight lines. The district plans a visitor-management system tied to ID checks and integration with PowerSchool so students’ badge in/out times are recorded.

Visitor-screening discussion: Board members asked about weapons-detection kiosks and costs. The superintendent said multiple vendors exist and that published prices vary widely; the board heard an example of a vendor price advertised online near $100,000 per double door plus several thousand dollars per month for monitoring, but that district estimates and vendor quotes were still being collected. The superintendent cautioned that no system is perfect — one vendor is involved in litigation over a reported bypass — and noted metal detectors and other options carry practical and perceptual trade-offs.

Bond-administration agreements and reimbursement resolution: As part of bond administration the board approved a reimbursement resolution allowing the district to repay roughly $2.5 million in district funds advanced to close on land purchases; those costs are expected to be reimbursed from bond proceeds when bonds are issued in June. The board also approved agreements related to bond issuance and administration (dissemination/agent and financial services agreements with Piper Sandler, and disclosure-counsel engagement with Ehlers & Cooney).

Voting and next steps: The motion to approve the lamp/engineering design package for parking and pavement replacement projects for $127,000 passed. The superintendent said architects will present design fees for specific construction scopes at the Feb. 3 meeting and the facilities committee would review the timeline and provide feedback the night prior.

Ending: Board members asked to be included as the district moves from conceptual estimates to architect-led design and final cost estimates. Mapping the storm sewer and finalizing city coordination on right-of-way near Harry Langdon remain near-term tasks.