Carson City school board updated on capital, safety improvements

Carson City School District campuses and facilities have received a remodel or maintenance work this past summer, operations director Mark Korinek reported to the district’s Board of Trustees Tuesday on the progress of the capital and major summer projects completed during the 2019-20 year.

Korinek noted projects were prioritized or classified according to health, safety and welfare or for equity, code compliance, energy efficiency and educational programs, with school capacity also taken into consideration.

“You can’t increase programs without capacity,” he said.

Pioneer High School’s restrooms were remodeled, having been designed and built in the 1950s, to include new fixtures, countertops, partitions and floor treatment. A new tree was added to the courtyard, and bottle fillers have been added in lieu of water fountains being shut off due to COVID-19.

Fritsch Elementary School now has a continued single point of entry with an office counter pass-through glass, tenant improvements, sidewalks, parking lot improvements and two exterior doors were replaced.

Empire Elementary did not require many improvements this year since it already was in good shape, Korinek said. It did receive bottle fillers on its block walls since it, too, like the other campuses, can no longer serve students through its regular water fountains.

After a bond project on a learning area that was completed last summer, Fremont Elementary this summer received work on a courtyard and events center with a gathering spot. The parking lot has been striped with roofing repairs and its yellow wing was carpeted in classrooms. There is now a new a shade structure and a movie screen.

Carson Middle now has a new basketball court and had drainage improvements completed along with its parking lot restriped and gym floor refinishing.

Mark Twain Elementary had some roofing improvements similar to Fremont, and the cracked cement in the parking lot was fixed. The classrooms in its red wing now have a computer lab, and the school has new playground equipment.

Seeliger Elementary’s bond projects have been completed, Korinek said, with the school’s Career Life Skills class moved from Seeliger to Fremont. A portable was moved, and the perimeter has been secured, which previously had not been during the day. Korinek said people often would walk their dogs on campus when physical education was taking place. A playground also has been installed. The site’s former special education room has been remodeled and a restroom has been torn out.

At Carson High School, the High Tech Center’s general pod center was remodeled. All eight restrooms around Senator Square also were refreshed. Entry doors and north and east windows also should help with energy efficiency, Korinek said, and the baseball backstop and scorers booth also received improvements.

Bordewich-Bray Elementary also had another portable removed, and its multipurpose restroom was refreshed with some older tile replaced. Two bottle fillers were installed, and three rooms have been carpeted. The multipurpose room currently has a metal roof and will be reroofed with concrete. The district will go to bid this winter for work to be done in the spring at an estimate of $250,000, Korinek said.

The Gleason Professional Development Center at 604 W. Musser St. has had its old restrooms remodeled, a mini split heat and cool unit for the office area and parking lot striping.

The district’s administrative office at 1402 W. King St. will receive additional space, new paint, carpeting, ceiling tiles and landscaping. Work has been delayed since 2005 with school site needs made a priority first, Korinek said.

Korinek also added the district has completed a number of safety grant projects or work related to COVID-19 to ensure schools and staff are equipped for safety measures and the coronavirus. These included adding exterior cameras and storefront doors or pass-through windows, reroofing the operations service center, installing an entry vestibule at Eagle Valley Middle School and Fritsch or swing gates, signage and other equipment. Health needs also included prepping nurses’ clinics and converting certain classrooms into isolation rooms.

Korinek also gave an update on the Eagle Valley expansion project, which has been budgeted for $8.2 million. New construction is approximately 20,000 square feet and will allow for an increase in enrollment and space for nine classrooms, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) labs, student and teacher restrooms and storage and tenant improvements and additional parking. The district selected Van Woert Bigotti Architect as its consultant and CORE Construction as its construction manager at risk. Construction is expected to begin in June 2021.

Trustee Richard Varner noted the schools at this time are looking well-prepared and asked whether the Gleason building might have its front door security addressed any time soon at the request of staff. Korinek said although the schools have been prioritized first for student safety, operations staff could see about adding a keyless entry to the building for now.

Chief financial officer Andrew Feuling also recognized Mark Johnson, capital and special projects manager, for helping to make the district energy-efficient.