LUXEMBURG – A couple months into the major renovation projects at the main Luxemburg-Casco School District campus, work is going as planned so far, School Board President Mike Driedric said.

The renovations are the result of two referendum questions passed in April 2018, authorizing the district to issue bonds up to a total of $27.8 million.

The first question asked for up to $15.9 million for construction of a new high school gymnasium and a secure main entrance for the primary school as its main points, along with upgrades to the school's technical education equipment and other improvements.

The second question sought to issue bonds up to $11.9 million to build a new middle school on the campus, attached to the high school, and convert the current middle school building in Casco to an alternative school.

An official groundbreaking ceremony took place May 10, although some work had been completed in late 2018, such as moving the kindergarten playground and adding two rooms to the primary school.

Work on the gym started the week after the groundbreaking, with work on the new middle school scheduled to start this month.

A press release from the school district indicated:

• Heavy excavation work and surface leveling is "well on its way towards completion";
• The Marcks Lane bus loop is about 40 percent graded;
• Concrete wall footings for the gymnasium began being poured July 1;
• Windows and doors of the high school that no longer will be used are being blocked;
• A new electrical transformer for the high school was switched on by WPS on July 3;
• A new shower and bathroom area for the girls’ locker room has been roughed out;
• New HVAC duct work is being installed (the heat is expected to be available by Sept. 1, with the cooling system available by early 2020);
• A new gas meter is working and a new water main has been installed and needs to be flushed once before it is put into use.

"Everything is on track with the timeline we presented to the public," Driedric said. "The gymnasium should be completed by December or January … The idea is to do the gym first, then focus on the middle school."

The timeline shows the middle school building is scheduled to be completed around June 2020, with interior and bus traffic work taking the rest of that summer so the school can open for the 2020-21 year. The middle and high schools will share a main entrance.

Nexus Solutions of Madison was hired by the district as project planner. Somerville Architects and Engineers was hired for the design work, with Bayland Buildings and SMA Construction Services, all of Green Bay, handling the primary school and gymnasium/middle school, respectively.

Several changes were made to the original plan laid out by the referendums after the district learned some of the expected costs were inaccurate, according to a Sept. 25, 2018 project update on the L-C website (luxcasco.k12.wi.us/district/referendum). The district worked with Nexus Solutions to make changes that kept the ideas intact while staying within the budget.

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One major change will see the new gym, which will have three full courts, built via traditional concrete construction instead of using a pre-engineered model. 

Another change is having one cafeteria serving both the middle and high schools, instead of building a separate cafeteria for the approximately 300 middle school students who will eventually join about 650 high schoolers on campus for lunch. By expanding the kitchen and arranging to have two lunch periods for high school and one for middle school, the district is saving $1.14 million from the initial plan, according to the newsletter.

"As part of the referendum, we were redesigning the cafeteria to meet the needs of that many students," Driedric said. "The reality was, we could do that just by expanding the kitchen and specifying separate times for the middle school and high school students."

Besides the new gym, other renovations to the campus' athletic facilities include a new scoreboard and lights for the soccer field and a new, five-mat room next to the gym for the traditionally powerful wrestling team, which has earned 11 team and 26 individual titles at the state high school tournament since 1992.

The current wrestling room will be converted to a 4,200-square-foot public workout space with community access, bathrooms and a changing area.

Also part of the budget from the referendum, two CNC (computer numerical control) machines from D&S Machine Service in Luxemburg were brought into the building for eventual use by the technology education classes. CNC machines use computer programs to control tools that fabricate items, and their use in the manufacturing industry is growing.

"Our district is working closely with businesses in the area to close the skills gap," Driedric said.

Driedric said it's not yet certain exactly how the outgoing middle school building in Casco will be used. He said the building had several upgrades over the past 10 years and is structurally sound, so work there would mainly focus on changing the interior to meet its new needs.

"The district is still working on the plan for the Casco campus," Driedric said. "We've had conversations with the Kewaunee School District, Algoma, but it's too preliminary to announce anything at this time."

As work continues, and once it is done, Driedric said he hopes people will see the district's commitment to its students. Not just people in the district but perhaps outside it, as well.

"It's very exciting for the district," he said. "We're going to renovate a lot of facilities, update them to meets the needs of the students. I think people in the district are passionate about being a Spartan (the school's nickname).

"I think it'll attract more people to the district, which is what we want to do. For a lot of people from the east side of Green Bay, for example, we're showing our commitment to having state-of-the-art facilities."

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-741-7952, 920-562-8900 or [email protected]

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Luxemburg-Casco: Work progressing on school renovations OKed under referendums