Knox Schools Community Task Force Gets to Work, Ahead of Potential Building Project

A potential building project continues to be explored at Knox Community Schools. A community task force set up to help guide the process has held its first meeting, according to Superintendent Dr. William Reichhart.

“There’s now a blog that you can go to and see what they did at the last meeting,” he told the school board Tuesday. “They list the positives and negatives of our school corporation in the opinions of the people that were there that evening, and they’ll meet again on January 9 to take a tour of our facilities.”

When it comes to the school corporation’s facilities, some of the positives that were identified include the sports facilities, how well the campus is maintained, and the tradition of the Weinberg Gym, according to the blog. Some of the negatives include the older section of the elementary school, the pool, student pick-up and drop-off, and safety and security in the buildings.

Reichhart added that the potential project is drawing interest from construction managers. “I met with one today, and I’m going to meet with another one later on this week,” he said. “I don’t really know anything about a construction manager, so they’re enlightening me. And I said if we feel like it’s a good idea, I’ll have them present to the board and see if you want to use a construction manager, as we go forward with the project.”

He also told board members that some work recently overseen by guaranteed energy savings provider EMCOR has come in under budget. “They had issued a contract for services with us for like $3.5 million and change, and recently – this week, in fact – I got a reduction,” Reichhart said. “They did not spend all of their money as an energy savings contract. I know it’s not a lot, but it’s $71,186 that we’re going to get back.” Reichhart said that leftover money could be used for other potential improvements.