By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Construction is complete on three of the four buildings for Early Childhood Connections’ new home on 13th Street.
Fire inspections were set for this week, and ECC is set to start moving into the former Oak Park Medical Complex on Tuesday.
Building 3 should be completed and available for the Munjor program to move into its new home in August. This will include moving playground equipment from the Munjor school to Oak Park. Surfacing for the complex’s playground is being repurposed from Wilson, which received a new playground last year, and O’Loughlin, which is getting new playground equipment next week.
Building 3 lagged behind the rest because it still had a tenant in it when the school district purchased the property.
Once all the programs are moved, the Oak Park Complex will be home to all the early childhood programs for children ages birth through 5 in the district.
The school board approved a $1.76 million contract with Paul-Wertenberger Construction in March for renovations of the former Oak Park Medical Complex. It purchased the complex for $2 million, which will be paid for through a lease agreement out of capital outlay funds.
The district received a $1.47 million federal grant and a $500,000 donation from HaysMed, the primary owner of the complex before it was sold, for the renovations.
The school district signed a contract extension with Overland Property Group on Monday to buy Washington school, where ECC is now housed. OPG hopes to turn the 90-year-old school into low-income apartments. Munjor school is owned by the Catholic Church all will go back to the diocese once the school is vacated by USD 489.
Other capital projects
The school district started the summer with 192 maintenance tickets. One hundred thirteen of those tickets have been completed, Rusty Lindsay, building and grounds director, said on Monday.
The projects included things such as tuck pointing, roof repairs, concrete work, carpet and flooring work, wiring and installation of new clocks at Hays High School and installation of new food service equipment.
The board previously voted to purchase replacement interior door locks. Those were to be installed this summer. However, that project is not complete, because the locks are on backorder from the manufacturer, Lindsay said.
Work on HHS’s greenhouse will begin next week. The building was damaged in a hail storm last fall. Concrete is being poured at HHS this week and work is set to begin soon on the roof at Roosevelt Elementary School.
CTE space
The board heard a request to purchase a new metal storage building for HHS at a cost of $57,250. HHS Principal Martin Straub said items will be moved into the metal building, and the rooms they are now being stored in will be converted to classroom space.
He said he would like to use the storage room for the school’s graphic arts program. He said he hoped to tie the radio/TV pathway with the graphic arts pathway by locating their programs next to each other in rooms 503 and 504.
He said this was a way to better use space for career and technical education without bond money.
“We can remodel and redesign at a limited cost with the structure we have and do so in a very frugal way,” he said. “We can have a nice facility for the kids. It is all about CTE.”
In other business, the board:
• Approved a contract with Russell USD 407 to provide services to its gifted students. The Russell district will pay USD 489 for the services. Russell will handle the transportation of its students to Hays.
• Heard a district financial report. Keith Hall, interim executive director of finance, told the board the district had a year-end balance in its general and supplemental funds of $290,000. That is a little less than 1 percent of the district’s budget. Accountants recommend a year-end balance of 2 to 3 percent. He said the carry over could go into the CTE, special education or contingency funds.