Bond Updates

To help add additional storage options so we can protect our purchased property (mats, hurdles, sleds, etc.) we are looking at storage options under the home bleachers, all of which require the installation of a concrete pad. We are taking the first step this summer by installing that concrete pad. 

This work should be minimally invasive, but may require students to enter into the athletic complex through the baseball or Middle School Parking Lot entrances.

• Contractor: Kilnoski Construction
• Contracted Cost: $30,880
• Number of Bids: 4
• Funding Source: PPEL/SAVE
• Estimated Timeline: June 2025

Right now, all students and visitors enter and exit the building through the front doors of the High School. This creates issues from a monitoring and safety standpoint. Students and guests have to make the conscious decision to go to the office and check in after they enter the building. It also creates issues with students leaving the building, as it’s hard to monitor and track students as they leave. The new addition and general office renovation would create a new entrance and exit for students and guests after the initial arrival and before the final dismissal times. It would also move security personnel to the front of the building with clear views of the parking lot, move principals to the front of the building, and expand the nurse’s office, installing a shower for students who need it. 

With the new addition, after the initial arrival of students in the morning, all students and guests will enter through the new addition, allowing our staff to track students as they come and go and screen guests through our new Raptor Visitor Management System. 

The plan is to build the outside addition first (possibly this fall/winter), then renovate the interior and pull the offices together in Summer 2026. This project will be fairly evasive, particularly during the renovation phase, which will require us to relocate the office activities (possibly High School Hallway).

• Contractor: Waiting for board approval
• Budgeted Cost: $1,350,000
• Contracted Cost: Waiting for board approval
• Number of Bids: TBD - waiting for board approval
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: Fall 2025 - Summer 2026

This project will replace the Tennis Courts and relocate them to the NW portion of the property. Expanding from four to six tennis courts will also allow our students more options for practice and events. Parking for the courts already exists in that area. The new tennis courts will also include safety lighting and bleachers. Patrons will utilize the bathrooms in our Black Box theater, which is significantly closer to the new courts than the High School entrance is to the existing courts. 

The current Tennis Courts are slated for removal in order to install a new lane for entering and exiting our parking lot. However, as we wait for the city to determine how our new exit and entry fits into their new plans for Harry Langdon Blvd., we will remove the fence around the current Tennis Courts and turn that area into a parking lot. 

This contract also includes the clearance of our drainage ditches for the High School, Middle School, and Operations Building properties. This work should significantly improve the ability of our parking lots and athletic fields to drain properly. 

This work should not restrict anyone from using the facility and should be minimally disruptive to our normal operations. However, due to the long cure time needed for the tennis court construction (28 days), the new tennis courts won’t be complete until the end of October. We will need to use the current tennis courts during the majority of our fall tennis season. The project may also temporarily impede the traffic on the walking/biking trail that runs through our property in that area. 

• Engineer: Lamp Rynearson
• Contractor: High Plains Construction
• Budgeted Cost: $1,200,000
• Contracted Cost: $1,055,098.53
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June 2, 2025 - October 30, 2025

Kreft Primary School is in dire need of a playground renovation to increase the playing capacity of our students as well as safety. This summer, the playground will be renovated to ensure that the equipment is accessible for all. Throughout the playground, turf surfacing will be installed to ensure that regardless of the time of year, all students, even those with mobility issues, will be able to access the playground with their peers. The playground will also be fitted with ground-based sensory options and a handicap-accessible merry-go-round.

The only play equipment that will remain will be the swing sets closest to the parking lot. Those will remain with mulch. 

The playgrounds will be installed and ready by the start of the school year.

• Contractor: Crouch Recreation
• Budgeted Cost: $400,000
• Contracted Cost: $392,843
• Number of Bids: 3
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June/July 2025

This summer, we will be starting the first phase of our HVAC upgrades at Titan Hill. One of the biggest issues we have is an undersized geothermal system for the size of our building. The recommended solution is to supplement the geothermal system by installing a boiler and chiller in the school. This should more than make up for the deficiency in the size of our system, and give us a solution that we can adjust and maintain outside of the geothermal loop. The installation of this system will start in mid-July with the foundation work (lines, gas, electrical, platform, etc.) completed prior to school starting, as this is the most invasive work. The HVAC equipment should arrive between September and the end of October. The goal is to have the chiller and boiler installed prior to the winter season in early to mid-November. 

This work should be minimally invasive during the summer and school year. There may be some noise when installing the system, but the disruption should be minimal. 

• Engineer: Morrissey Engineering
• Contractor: Grunwald
• Budgeted Cost: $1,250,000
• Contracted Cost: $406,489
• Number of Bids: 5
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: July 14, 2025 - November 14, 2025

Titan Hill currently has one playground with equipment, one playground without equipment, and a hill that they use as a third playground. This summer, we will renovate the current playground with new equipment, add a turf field on the hill with gaga ball pits for year-round play, and add playground equipment to the “musical” playground on the south side of the building. Both of the playgrounds with equipment will have turf throughout the play area to provide accessibility to the equipment for all students, year-round. Both playgrounds will also be provided with an open-turf area, ground-based sensory options, and a handicap-accessible merry-go-round.

We ended up choosing turf over rubber surfacing, even though it was a little more expensive, due to the 15-year warranty (vs. 3-year warranty for rubber surfacing). All of the playground equipment comes with a 5- to 25-year warranty depending on piece of equipment. 

Due to longer lead times with the equipment, the north and south playgrounds won’t be ready until mid-September. The turf on the hill with gaga ball pits will be ready by the start of school. 

• Contractor: Crouch Recreation
• Budgeted Cost: $800,000
• Contracted Cost: $902,249
• Number of Bids: 3
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June-September 2025

Our current phone system is outdated and isn’t compliant with current federal laws (Ray Baum Act and Kari’s Law). Cisco also no longer makes the hardware that our phones operate on. By replacing the phones and service, we will now be compliant with all federal laws and will provide our staff and stakeholders with consistent communication options. The new service allows us to save money by cutting down on services and maintenance costs that are required by our current phone system. 

This change should not disrupt our regular functions as we will be installing the phones parallel to our existing system and won’t make the crossover in service until everything is set up.

• Contractor: Perdigon
• Budgeted Cost: $250,000
• Contracted Cost: $236,161.40
• Number of Bids: 4
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June/July 2025

The new fire alarm system will be installed this summer. It will update the current system, for which they no longer make parts, and put the High School in compliance with current alert standards. 

This work should not restrict anyone from using the facility or create an unmonitored area. They will completely install the system before switching the front-end, leaving minimal downtime without a fire alarm system. We will try to make the switch during an unoccupied time in the building. 

• Engineer: Lamp Rynearson
• Contractor: Total Fire
• Budgeted Cost: $250,000
• Contracted Cost: $260,770
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June 2, 2025-August 15, 2025

The High School Chiller will be replaced, the large gym and weight rooms will be taken off the current loop and will have stand-alone units installed for better temperature and humidity control, and a new front-end control system will be installed. 

The Chiller will arrive in May, and installation will start on June 2, 2025. There will be a period of time during the transition when there will not be consistent cooling throughout the high school, but that time period should be relatively short. 

The new stand-alone units will be installed above the gym and weight room during the month of June. This will require us to remove all of the current ductwork and diffusers, cap lines to the current system, and reinstall the new ductwork and equipment. 

The new controls will allow staff to monitor temperatures remotely, troubleshoot issues, and create zones to control areas of the building and set occupancy levels. This is not currently possible in our current system; the entire building is either on or off. This should save us a significant amount of money moving forward in energy costs. The front-end system is already in development and will be integrated into the system this summer. This system will also allow us to connect other buildings in the future to have better control over the entire district’s HVAC settings.     

While these projects won’t prohibit people from entering the building, they will restrict use of certain spaces (primarily the Gym and Weight Room) during installation. It may also be uncomfortable to work in the building during the times when the cooling system is offline.

• Engineer: Shive Hattery
• Contractor: Optimized Systems (Controls Contractor)
• Funding Source: Physical Plant and Equipment Levy/SAVE (One-Cent Sales Tax)
• Estimated Timeline: May 12, 2025 - August 8, 2025

This project replaced a portion of the High School Roof (Phase 2) on the north side of the building over the 2-story section. We completed Phase 1 last summer and completed the final phase in June.

• Engineer: Emswiler
• Contractor: Blackhawk Roofing
• Budgeted Cost: $800,000
• Contracted Cost: $512,750
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June 2, 2025-July 1, 2025

As a part of our ongoing maintenance, we will be painting the High School Commons, Large Gym, Weight Room, and Activities Hallway. All walls and ceilings will be painted (with the exception of tiled ceilings). 

This will be fairly invasive and will disrupt our ability to use the commons, gym, weight room, and activities hallway during the painting period. This project will take the entire summer, but will be finished by the time school starts. 

• Contractor: A Cut Above Painting
• Budgeted Cost: $80,000
• Contracted Cost: $46,400
• Number of Bids: 3
• Funding Source: PPEL/SAVE
• Estimated Timeline: June/July 2025

The High School parking lot will be completely torn out and repaved, including all islands and light poles, from the entrance through the access road to the Middle School. The newly concreted area on the west side of the High School will remain. The new parking lot  will include better traffic queuing, LED Lighting, and sidewalks leading to the athletic entrances. In addition, continuous power will be brought to the light poles to allow the installation of cameras, license plate readers, and weapons-detection systems, creating a more secure and safer environment for our students, staff, and visitors. A new walk-in only gate will be provided so the community will have access to our facilities outside of school hours.

This project will highly affect our ability to use the High School facilities as we normally would during the summer. While we will do our best to maintain access to the buildings by creating a phasing schedule that will leave at least one entry open, students will have to park at the Middle School for most of the summer and walk over to the High School for summer activities.

• Engineer: Lamp Rynearson
• Contractor: Mackie Construction
• Budgeted Cost: $1,900,000
• Contracted Cost: $1,340,516.93
• Number of Bids: 7
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June 9, 2025-August 12, 2025

With the amount of success that Lewis Central High School students have had, we are out of trophy space to represent the successes of all of our student activities. This project will overhaul the trophy cases and add more space in order to proudly display and represent the success that all of our programs have achieved. 

This project should not affect our ability to operate summer programming.

• Contractor: Cormaci
• Budgeted Cost: $80,000
• Contracted Cost: $59,584
• Number of Bids: 1 (Tried numerous other vendors, but only got one to commit to the work)
• Funding Source: PPEL/SAVE
• Estimated Timeline: June/July 2025

For both energy savings and classroom environment reasons, we will be changing out all of the light fixtures at Kreft with energy-efficient LED lighting and switches. All classroom lights will be dimmable, which will allow teachers to adjust the brightness of their lights based on the activity or student needs in their classroom. The estimated ROI period on energy savings is 10 to 12 years. 

Although this project will require work in every classroom and common space, the work should not affect our summer programming or offerings.

• Contractor: VOS Lighting (Action Electric)
• Budgeted Cost: $200,000
• Contracted Cost: $153,310
• Number of Bids: 2 (State Approved Contract)
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond

At Kreft Primary, the secure entrance only includes the initial doorway entrance of the school. Once into the building, visitors may choose whether to continue down the hallway or to the office. This project will put a glass wall and locked doors between the entrance and the hallways, requiring visitors to check into the office and receive clearance before entering the rest of the building. This project will also install electronic door access on all doors leading to and from the office. 

This project will be started this June and should be completed before August 2025. This will be fairly invasive as they will have to potentially close the entrance to the building for a short while, requiring our office associates to potentially relocate to the Library Entrance for the summer.

• Engineer: Lamp Rynearson
• Contractor: Elk Ridge Construction
• Budgeted Cost: $80,000
• Contracted Cost: $74,554.98
• Number of Bids: 4
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: July 2025

We currently don’t have any interior cameras at Kreft Primary School. The few external cameras we have are dated to the point where you can hardly see what is being recorded. This project will install cameras throughout the interior and exterior of our school. In addition, we will be installing door contacts and a notification system to alert our administrators anytime a door is left propped open or is opened during the school day when it is not supposed to be. This project will significantly increase our ability to ensure the safety of our students.

• Contractor: Prime Secured
• Budgeted Cost: $150,000
• Contracted Cost: $148,008.91
• Number of Bids: 1 (Only vendor in the area)
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June/July 2025

All of our buildings, with the exception of the middle school, operate off of a single, connected intercom and bell system (EPIC). With EPIC, the middle school will be connected to the other buildings, allowing them to coordinate bell schedules, emergency drills, and notifications. 

This should be mildly invasive as we do host summer school at the Middle School and may be without bells or an intercom system for a short period of time during the installation. 

• Contractor: KCAV
• Budgeted Cost: $150,000
• Contracted Cost: $132,834
• Number of Bids: 1 (Only contractor in area)
• Funding Source: PPEL/SAVE
• Estimated Timeline: June/July 2025

Fortunately, a lot of the Middle School roof has been replaced in the last 10 years and has quite a bit of warranty left on it, with the exception of one area. This area covers the area shaded in yellow on the map in the gallery below.

This project should not be invasive or affect our daily functions during the summer months.

• Engineer: Emswiler
• Contractor: JR Roofing
• Budgeted Cost: $200,000
• Contracted Cost: $163,743
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond

In December 2024, the District received a grant from the Iowa Department of Education to improve the safety and security of our attendance centers. Each attendance center received $50,000 for improvements around a list of items provided by the state after a security assessment was completed. Top on the list was an emergency response system that allowed staff to quickly notify administrators, students, staff, and/or emergency responders when an event occurred. In December, the district put out an RFP and awarded a contract to Raptor Technology after receiving two bids. $200,000 of the project will be paid for out of the state safety grant. 

The project will install strobes throughout each building that will alert everyone to an emergency based on the color of light. This work will be taking place during the third week of June. Once installed, every employee will have a badge with a button inside that, when pressed, sends a message to the school administrator that help is needed. When pressed many times consecutively, the badge sends a lockdown message to the entire building. Once activated, either as a “help wanted” or “lockdown,” the program pinpoints the badge and sends the location to the administrator so they know exactly where you are in the building. The Raptor App (downloadable on all phones for all employees) allows employees to also send messages to building administrators. 

Once an event is activated, strobes immediately start flashing the color of the particular action (green - Tornado, red - Lockdown, etc.), computer screens across the building will immediately portray the type of event and instructions, and the intercom system will submit a message as well. Law enforcement will have access to the system as well to help with their response if needed. 

In addition, a Visitor Safe management system will be installed in the offices, and will require visitors to scan their driver’s license when visiting, which will be run through a very fast background check, and visitors will be printed badges that allow them to visit the buildings. 

Learn more about Raptor's Emergency Management software by visiting their website.

• Contractor: Raptor Technologies
• Budgeted Cost: $200,000
• Contracted Cost: $210,851.60
• Number of Bids: 2
• Funding Source: PPEL/SAVE & State Safety Grant ($200,000)
• Estimated Timeline: June/July 2025

This summer, all of the exterior doors at Titan Hill and the High School will be fitted with  door contacts and a notification system to alert our administrators any time a door is left propped open or is opened during the school day when it is not supposed to be. This project will significantly increase our ability to ensure the safety of our students. 

In addition, the security camera and door monitoring storage that we currently have will be expanded to ensure that all of the recordings that we have will be able to be stored for at least 30 days. Right now, depending on the building or camera, we can only store as little as 7 days' worth of data.

• Contractor: Prime Secured
• Budgeted Cost: $100,000
• Contracted Cost: $123,150.23
• Number of Bids: 1
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June/July 2025

For both energy savings and classroom environment reasons, we will be changing out all of the light fixtures at Titan Hill with energy-efficient LED lighting and switches. All classroom lights will be dimmable, which will allow teachers to adjust the brightness of their lights based on the activity or student needs in their classroom. The estimated ROI period on energy savings is 10-12 years. 

Although this project will require work in every classroom and common space, the work should not affect our summer programming or offerings.

• Contractor: VOS Lighting (Bluffs Electric)
• Budgeted Cost: $300,000
• Contracted Cost: $214,350
• Number of Bids: 2 (State Approved Contract)
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June 2, 2025 - August 15, 2025

This project will add a lane for buses, ERC, and staff traffic and will create two lanes for parent drop-off. This should allow more than 40 cars to queue on the lane and help remove the backup on Harry Langdon. It will also replace the majority of the sidewalks and paving around the building, eliminating trip hazards and improving ADA accessibility. 

This project will be quite invasive to the operations at Titan Hill during the summer. We will have one lane open at all times, controlled by a timed traffic light. LCLC parents, staff, contractors, and those using the swimming pool will be inconvenienced during this time with wait times and alternating entrances based on the work being completed. 

• Engineer: Lamp Rynearson
• Contractor: Mackie Construction
• Budgeted Cost: $1,500,000
• Contracted Cost: $438,126
• Number of Bids: 9
• Funding Source: 2024 General Obligation Bond
• Estimated Timeline: June 2, 2025 - August 1, 2025

As part of our ongoing maintenance, we will be replacing weight room equipment this summer to enhance the safety and performance of our students. Our weight lifting program, while helping develop our athletes, is also the most popular class in the school, with 400 students a year selecting the course as part of their studies. The new equipment will allow for better lines of sight for supervision and a wider variety of lifting options. 

In addition to the new equipment, the school has partnered with a professional sports and conditioning trainer, Servais Sports Performance, to provide a wide variety of lifting plans for our students depending on their needs or goals. 

This will be fairly invasive, as the weight room will not be functional until the HVAC is installed, the room is painted, the floor is installed, and the new equipment is installed.

• Contractor: Push-Pedal-Pull
• Budgeted Cost: $150,000
• Contracted Cost: $168,007
• Number of Bids: 1 (State-approved contract)
• Funding Source: PPEL/SAVE
• Estimated Timeline: July 2025

With the installation of the new HVAC to eliminate humidity in the weight room, the room is also going to receive new flooring. Due to the years of humid conditions, the current rubber floor no longer adheres to the concrete, and the district wants to make sure that there is no mold growth. 

This will be fairly invasive, as the weight room will not be functional until the HVAC is installed, the room is painted, the floor is installed, and the new equipment is installed. 

• Contractor: Kelly’s Carpet
• Budgeted Cost: $50,000
• Contracted Cost: $35,842.05
• Number of Bids: 2
• Funding Source: PPEL/SAVE
• Estimated Timeline: June 2025