Facilities committee gets status updates on bond and capital projects, including Tomahawk rebuild and turf field work

District facilities staff gave an item-by-item update on bond and capital projects, construction timelines and remaining procurements.

Tyler Club, the district’s director of facilities, walked the committee through a Gantt chart showing active and upcoming work. He said Tomahawk is an on-site 79,000-square-foot elementary rebuild and remained on schedule to open for the fall 2025 term. "This 79,000 square foot elementary rebuild on-site," Club said while showing project imagery of classrooms, the main gym and finish work.

Completed projects cited included an addition and renovation at Shawnee Mission West — described as a roughly 4,500-square-foot, two-story addition that expanded weight and training space — and a 1,600-square-foot addition at Indian Hills that opened for second-semester use. Club said the District considers both projects completed for occupancy though closeout paperwork may remain.

Athletic turf work was discussed as a multi-site program. Club said the district plans to turf additional fields at the soccer complex (fields 2–4) so the complex will be fully turfed when finished; he also described infield turf projects at the 3 and 2 complex and high-school sites. Staff noted phasing and weather have affected outdoor work and that winter ground conditions delayed some turf bed preparations, but the district said it expects fields to be ready by the start of practice under a plan A or plan B contingency.

District staff are also proceeding with a district-wide LED lighting retrofit (currently out for vendor selection) and a web-based HVAC controls platform that will cover the district's building controls. Club reported the controls program would reach the district’s 5,800,000 square feet of facilities (transcript figure as presented) and described it as a major, multi-year capital project.

The committee discussed the pending demolition of Catherine Carpenter Elementary. Club said the demolition contract is awarded but that permitting and utility coordination delayed an anticipated January start; he expected site fencing and teardown within weeks once final permits are returned. Members said future use of the site will be informed by strategic-plan committees and community conversations in the Woodstock neighborhood, where staff described generally positive feedback about removing a building that had become an eyesore.

Construction-cost inflation was discussed in planning terms. Staff said 2025 construction costs remain substantially higher than costs in 2018–2020; one presenter noted current prices in planning ranges are about 30–40% higher than earlier years, with ongoing annual inflation in the typical 3–5% range anticipated.

The committee was informed that many bond projects touched districtwide security upgrades and master-key systems and that staff will verify counts and wording in public-facing materials before distributing bond-status information more broadly.