Unit 40 Board, Administrators Continue Discussion on Work at Junior High

Unit 40 school board members and administrators this week again discussed what, if anything, should be done to improve Effingham Junior High School.

The administration has presented information on a survey that was done last year that details what work could be done to update the facility. A new building appears at this point to be too expensive.

At this week's meeting, Superintendent Mark Doan shared that if a project is pursued, it will be driven by how much of it can be funded with health/life safety dollars. Doan said he and Assistant Superintendent Jason Fox are investigating the options, and questions were sought from Board members about matters related to the junior high building. 

At a certain point, the Board has to decide whether to move ahead with a project or reject the idea and address problems as they arise. Doan said that if work is identified that qualifies for health/life safety money, the State will expect it to be addressed.

Getting the work approved is another consideration. Doan said every district wanting to complete a project will want it to be completed in the summer. If the State has one $15 million project to consider, or 15 $1 million projects, he thinks they'll lean toward getting a number of projects completed.

Administrators are also looking at two options in undertaking a project. One is construction management, where a project is done with the construction management firm overseeing what is completed, the other is performance contracting, where an agreement is reached on what will be completed. There's more flexibility with construction management, so if items come up during completion of the project, resources could be reallocated to address those issues. With performance contracting, though, as was utilized by the district with recent work at Central School and the high school, the district knew exactly what was going to be spent on the work.

The Board could reach a decision on whether to pursue a project, and perhaps what to pursue, within the next couple of months.