MEEKER | The Meeker Board of Education (Board) and School District start off the New Year with the exciting challenge of selling their approved bonds and initiating the actual building phase of the high school renovation and new bus garage project.
Design Advisory Group to Meet
The board, with district superintendent Chris Selle, established a rather large Design Advisory Group for the projects in November. This group met three times in December and is scheduled to meet again on Jan. 7 at Meeker High School, 5:30 p.m. According to Selle, the work at this meeting, which is open to the public, will focus on the drafted schematic design which has been built around the discussions in the December meetings.
Selle has expressed enthusiasm for the fact that the district continues to carry the mantle of Accredited with Distinction from the State Department of Education and the elementary school has recently earned a Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award. He is especially grateful that the Meeker community has chosen to invest in Meeker students with the passage of Amendment 4A in November approving the new renovation and construction project bonding.
On the side of caution, Selle urges the community to keep flexibility in mind as the whole project moves forward since no doubt, he suggests, delays and unexpected changes in timetables and the like will occur. Selle asks that all keep the overall goal in mind, too, that goal being “to provide an infinitely better facility for our students.”
As we’ve reported earlier, Saul Abrahams is the district’s representative overseeing the whole project. He and the district will be working, under contract, with NV5 for overall construction quality assurance, TreanorHL for architectural services, Weecycle as the environmental consultants, and Ground Engineering Consultants for geotechnical work including soil and materials analysis and testing. Contracts with Haselden Construction as the construction manager/general contractor and SGM Engineering for on-call surveying are expected to be perfected later this month.
New Hires and Resignations
Last month, the board approved new hires of Kathy Hockett and James Anderson as certified substitutes. They also accepted resignations, effective at the end of the current school year, of kindergarten teacher Jackie Meyer, former superintendent and current coordinator of academics Mark Meyer, Maria Beckington as the high school Spanish teacher, and Lynn Laman as a bus driver and substitute. Selle has also stepped down as middle school assistant wrestling coach in order to give more attention to the construction project.
The board meets next in work session on Monday, Jan. 14, and for their regular monthly meeting Monday, Jan. 28, both at the district administration building at 7 p.m.
