By Ruth Anne Maddox

Staff Writer

Contracts were awarded Monday by the Shakopee School Board for two projects getting under way in the district and approval was given to advertise for bids for a third facility improvement project.

For the classroom security/acoustics project that will put doors on open classrooms at Pearson and Sweeney elementary schools, Ebert Construction of Corcoran was the low bidder, coming in at $258,400.

Ebert’s was one of nine bids received for the project, which will be completed over the summer. The remainder of the bids ranged from $270,995 to $362,675.

The district opted to enclose the open-concept classrooms at the two schools, both to reduce the amount of noise carried from one classroom to another and to increase security by having doors available in case a lockdown becomes necessary.

Aduddel Roofing, St. Paul, will replace the roof on the pool at Shakopee Middle School for $166,207.

The school district received seven bids for this project, but two that were lower than Aduddel’s were withdrawn by the companies because they failed to include all of the subcontractor work.

Each bid included variations for the type roof to be installed and the School Board chose to have a four-ply built-up roof system with a gravel surface over a tapered insulation system rather than a flat rubber roof.

Other bids for the roof design chosen ranged from $181,042 to $213,850.

Up next is re-bricking at the middle school, where moisture and other issues have caused bulging in the brick walls.

The project was separated into two portions: Phase I and Phase II, with the first phase taking care of the south elevation, where the deterioration is the worst, as well as repairs on the east and west sides of the building, and the second for complete replacement of brick and insulation on the exterior pool walls.

Representatives of Wold Architects and Engineers will seek bids to be opened on June 3, with each project bid separately and as one to determine what the best price could be for the repairs.

Scott McQueen of Wold said he recommends that the school district move forward as soon as possible with the repairs outlined in Phase I but that Phase II could wait as long as five years to be completed if the School Board wanted to do so. However, “economies of scale” might indicate that it would be financially advantageous for the school district to move forward sooner – both because constructions costs are currently down and the brick needed for a color-match replacement is available now and might not be five years from now because the industry is moving away from darker-colored brick.

Superintendent Jon McBroom told School Board members that the funding is available for both phases of the project if that’s what they decide to do.

Ruth Anne Maddox can be reached at (9520 345-6678 or rmaddox@swpub.com.