BROOKINGS – In spite of the cold and many snow days, progress on the Mickelson Middle School expansion continues, though with some worries regarding scheduling due to the weather.

The project, for which the school board has authorized spending up to $24.6 million, has been divided into four bid packages. The first one, which handled site preparation and groundwork, has already been completed. It included adding in the north parking lot now in use.

The work being done now is part of the second bid package. This work includes the construction of the addition on the southern side of the school building and redoing what is now the administrative office space. When work on the office space is complete, it’ll be transformed into a new nurses area, counselors area, special ed and behavior areas.

Work on the office space hasn’t yet begun, but anyone driving by the school can see that the south addition’s exterior block walls are being put in place. When it’s complete, this addition and the work on the current office space will add 15 classrooms to the school, with more class spaces to be added through other additions and remodeling of interior spaces.

This portion of the work was scheduled to be complete by Aug. 9, but the weather has caused some concern about meeting that deadline.

MMS Principal Tim Steffensen said a team of school and school district officials, along with contractors, architect firm ATS&R and more is prioritizing what parts of the project are necessities to have completed by the time school begins, versus what would merely be inconvenient if delayed. The team meets every two weeks to discuss the project, its progress and some basic decisions they might face.

Delay problems

Part of the problems that come from delaying some of this work is that it might interfere with the start of work with the third bid package. The third bid package will cover the remodeling of the existing building’s interior and additional space on the building’s north side.

That north addition will include a multipurpose room that can serve as a weight room or fitness space. The addition would also include locker rooms and office space for coaches. This portion of the project has been scheduled for completion by January 2020.

Because of all the construction happening on the building’s south side, the school’s main entrance hasn’t been used since October 2018. Right now, the lobby space has been walled off with a temporary wall of sheetrock. The front entrance should be torn down in a couple of months, perhaps in six weeks, so that it can be redone to tie into the new addition. This work, however, will mean losing more than just the entryway; some of the open space by the doors and part of the hallway to its right will be gobbled up by the work, too.

Art students, however, have made the best of the situation and have been working on a mural on the temporary wall. The mural depicts outdoor scenes, featuring streams and woods and wildlife in different seasons.

Work on the school’s kitchen and cafeteria area is planned to start over the summer of 2020. This work would give the school a larger serving area, newer and bigger coolers and freezers

Also planned for that summer would be revamping the school’s music area and redoing the roof and all of the floors in the current building in order to match it to the new addition.

Depends on school end date

Because of how extensive most of this interior work is, it can’t be done while school is in session and students are around. So, work on parts of this third bid package has been planned to start as early as May 23, after school is done for the 2018-2019 school year. But with the district’s need to make up for multiple snow days, that might not happen as planned.

Steffensen said the third bid package should be sent out in March, with it open for bids at the end of the month. 

“That’s then projected to start right around the first of June, end of May. That all depends on school ending,” Steffensen said.

With so much of the upcoming work in bid package three dependent on the end of school and completion of parts of the second bid package, Steffensen said he and his team face a set of dominos carefully lined up.

“One thing affects the next thing, so you just have to knock one domino over at a time and figure out how it affects everybody else,” Steffensen said.

He went on to say that the main priority going forward will be ensuring that new class space is completed in time for the new school year.

“We’re going to use all those classrooms in a big hurry,” Steffensen said, adding, “What it does is give us some extra elbow room so we can move around. Right now, we’re pretty tight and cramped and use every space that we have. We’re running out of those spaces.”

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.