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Construction of the new Prairie View Elementary School will cost the Holmen School District less than what was anticipated. The Holmen School Board on Tuesday night accepted the construction bid from Olympic Builders of Holmen as the low bidder at $7.1 million.

This amount is under the estimated budget of $7.7 million for construction of the new 85,300-square-foot facility. This price, $83.26 per square foot, includes site construction, building construction, fixed equipment and contingencies.

The district received nine bids ranging from Olympic Builders’ low bid of $7.1 million to $7.955 million from C.D. Smith Construction in Fond du Lac. Four of the bids came in under the budgeted amount.

On June 3, the school district will be issuing bid package No. 2 that will include the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection and food service portions of the project.

Work will begin on the new elementary school as early as May 29. Completion is targeted for June 15, 2009.

The new building will not be LEED certified. According to the school district’s consultant, Douglas Ramsey of HSR Associates, there will be plenty of the energy saving and conservation aspects built into the building, but a LEED certification would cost $50,000 to $75,000 more. “It’s not really getting you anything,” Ramsey said. “It’s just a plaque on the wall. A lot of businesses use it for marketing purposes. (HSR) is LEED certified, so we don’t have anything against it, but the school doesn’t need the certification. The school district won’t need to be LEED certified to attract students. Parents aren’t going to choose the school because it’s LEED certified.”

According to the U.S. Green Building Council Web site, “LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a third party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.”

Ramsey said the building is being designed with a super-insulated roof, rain gardens, on-site water retention, native plants, window glazing and other green building aspects. “We’re very concerned about our fuels and preserving the environment,” he said.

Nine students from social studies teacher Chris Sepich’s high school government class expressed their concern for the environment by requesting the board consider utilizing wind turbines. Each of the students presented an aspect of wind energy.

Jesse Heiden told the board that wind energy is flexible — whatever isn’t used goes back to the power grid. Joel Modlin said wind energy is renewable and nonpolluting.

Trevor Dinsmore spoke of common misconceptions about wind turbines. “The most common complaint is bird fatalities,” he said. “But for every 10,000 bird fatalities, wind turbines are the cause of only one bird fatality.”

In response to board member Dardy Berge’s question about costs, Heiden said it would vary depending on the site environment, how big they were and the wind speeds. “I could say it would take anywhere from 10 months to 10 years for the payback period,” Heiden said. “We need to do further research on that topic.”

Sepich said the students had been researching the topic for about a month. “We had Sen. Kapanke in on May 15, and he answered questions about energy,” Sepich said. “(The students) were doing research on background questions they were going to ask Kapanke and decided to take the information they found one step further to the school board.”

Sepich said the last time the school board looked at wind energy was when the district built the high school in 1994.

Charter school

The school board voted to approve the Ventures Charter School Contract, clearing the way for the school committee to submit grant applications to the Department of Public Instruction.

The terms of the contract will be for three years, beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, and continuing through the 2010-2011 school year, at which time its charter school status will be evaluated.

According to middle school Principal Lisa Snyder, there is no cost impact on the school district as all the costs can be covered by grants.

Other business

The board voted to contract with the YMCA for preschool services. The contract for the 2008-09 school year is for $32,064.18, the same as this year’s contract.

A retirement reception was held May 28 for retiring faculty and staff.

A retirement celebration for Fred Frick is scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, June 1, in the high school commons area.

The board thanked Bob Siolka who donated an Olympus digital camera and case to Holmen High School.

The board recognized Target for its “Take Charge of Education” program, which has benefited the Holmen School District. The board thanked the Onalaska Target store and team leader Matt Richardson for the support.

As part of the “Take Charge of Education” program, Target awarded Holmen High School $6,411. This money is a direct result of the parents, teachers and school supporters who participate in the program. Through the “Take Charge of Education Program,” families, teachers and members of the community have an easy way to raise money for their school. Target donates up to 1 percent of every purchase made with the REDcard to the eligible school.

Contact Jo Anne Killeen at joanne.killeen@lee.net or (608) 786-6816.

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