A mandatory pre-proposal meeting for the RFP of the HVAC systems was held Nov. 1, and, in order to be considered for the job, any firm interested needed to have at least one representative at the meeting. Four prospects attended the meeting, alleviating concerns raised by the board on whether the district would be able to attract the interest of enough firms to offer a wide range of options.

Thissen said the board will take questions submitted by the individual firms up to next week,  with a Nov. 21 deadline.

Following the submission of questions, the board will review them and then issue a response to the questions on Dec. 5. On Dec. 20, all firms still interested must have their proposal submitted.

“I am very hopeful,” Thissen said. “I would like to keep all four at the table and get proposals from all four.”

He said he hopes the district has a firm selected by Jan. 16.

“It will be a very interesting process. We’ll have three board members involved in the committee to hear from the four firms, and I am expecting them all to be very different,” Thissen said.

Thissen also presented preliminary findings from KESA surveys and post-bond election surveys to the board.

“The responses back on the surveys were all quite good and very valuable,” he said.

Three surveys were conducted within three different groups — staff, parents and students.

The surveys from the staff were completed before the school year began and the survey of the parents was completed during fall enrollment.

According to Thissen, 323 parents answered the five-question survey.

“In there, it does give us some type of direction,” he said.

The student survey is still ongoing, but Thissen is hopeful it will be completed by Thanksgiving break.

“Having all three together brings in a lot of information toward our mission and objectives,” he said, noting a full presentation will wait for the student portion of the survey. “There’s really a lot of information and numbers, and it’s too much to throw at you all at once. So what we want to do is simplify it and put it in the form of graphs before you see it.”

Thissen is still waiting on the most critical part of the post-bond election survey, which is being conducted by the Docking Institute at Fort Hays State University.

According to Thissen, 700 participants were involved in that survey, and he said the information from that survey should be available by Nov. 28.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what that information comes back like,” Thissen said.

The information provided by the FHSU Docking Institute will be valuable as the board moves forward with the next bond election, he said.