The North Judson-San Pierre School Corporation will be able to tackle some extra work, after bids for the elementary school project came in significantly lower than expected. The school board recently agreed to let the project bond proceeds be used for the bus garage, as well as a few more items at the elementary school, according to Superintendent Dr. Annette Zupin.
“Some of that that we will explore are additional electric in the classrooms – some of the teachers indicated that there weren’t enough electrical outlets, and they might want to see that – the playground enhancements – instead of pea gravel, perhaps we could have the rubber material, so any kind of playground enhancement – technology upgrades,” Zupin told board members.
Zupin added that incorporating additional work into the elementary project would also allow a future general obligation bond to be used for other projects, all without the need to raise taxes. “So we need to look at our gym floor and bleachers in the high school,” Zupin said. “We’ve been talking about that for over a year, as we know that that is the original, and we’re going to move forward with looking for funding for that, and now we know that we have funding because we don’t have to spend it on the transportation [center]. We always need to upgrade our roofs on both buildings and even central office.”
Other future projects include rebuilding the high school track, improving the storage in the junior/senior high school scene shop, and new sidewalks to complement larger improvements planned by the Town of North Judson and INDOT.
Officials were scheduled to meet with the two lowest construction bidders, Brown and Brown General Contractors and Larson-Danielson Construction, earlier this month. They also planned to meet with the Hamstra Group, the lowest bidder for the bus garage project.
