Site work and new construction of an educational facility in Rapid City, South Dakota. Completed plans call for the construction of a educational facility.

https://www.rcgov.org/rapid-city-news-room/city-experiences-second-best-month-for-building-permit-valuation-in-city-s-history-10761.html The City's Building Services Division issued 11 permits last month with a valuation total of more than $1 million each. Leading the way was a permit issued to the Rapid City Area School District with Scull Construction, Inc. as contractor. The permit is valued at $61 million for the new South Middle School at 2 Indiana Street. A permit valued at $8,378,000 was issued to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help with Rangel Construction Company as contractor for a cathedral addition at 520 Cathedral Drive. ___________________________- https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/groundbreaking-for-new-south-middle-school-set-for-march-31/article_49eb16b9-34df-5630-97c3-e44b2ae772e7.html#tracking-source=home-top-story Groundbreaking for new South Middle School set for March 31 Rapid City Area Schools is preparing to hold an official groundbreaking for the new South Middle School on March 31. Kumar Veluswamy, director of facilities services for RCAS, said fencing has been placed around the future construction site behind the existing building and community center. "If you've driven around the school, you've probably noticed some temporary construction fencing going up on the project... Things are moving and the temporary fencing is probably 70% up and we'll be moving dirt soon," Veluswamy said Tuesday evening at a Board of Education meeting. To build the replacement building, the school district is planning on using nearly $47.8 million in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding, up to $5 million from the district's capital outlay fund, and $15 million in financing from an outside firm. Plans call for the new South Middle School to be 135,000 square feet with a capacity of 800 students. The new building will be located north of the existing school on the same site and will connect to the existing community center. Construction will commence while the current school is still in use. Once the new building is complete, students and staff will move to the facility and the old building will be demolished. The new building will also have the ability to expand student capacity in the future by adding a third level to the classroom wings if needed. South Middle School was built in 1959 and like other school buildings its age, it has been afflicted with a combination of accessibility and infrastructure issues. Uneven flooring, collapsing foundations and multiple flights of stairs in hallways have made the building a district priority for replacement. Additional signs of the foundation's settling can be seen in the school's central courtyard, where water pools during heavy rainfall. South's water and sewer lines are embedded in its concrete foundation, making them expensive to repair. Light fixtures are similarly embedded in the ceiling structures and would likely be difficult to replace without exposing underlying asbestos. The original South Middle School is one of eight schools in the school district that is not fully air conditioned. In September 2019, teachers at South Middle School resorted to turning off the lights, cracking open windows and bringing in fans to keep the classrooms from heating up any more. Rebuilding South Middle School was a part of a $189 million school bond proposal to deal with many facility issues in the district that failed in 2020. Although 56% of voters supported the bond issue, it failed to garner the required 60% threshold. Because of the ongoing issues at the building, the Board of Education unanimously approved Feb. 15 to move forward with the financing to build the replacement school. ___________________________________________________ https://images.apollo.ai/articles/pdfs/3058391_409_02-11-2022.pdf Board to look at financing options for South Middle School NATHAN THOMPSON Journal staff The Rapid City Area Schools Board of Education is expected to take action Tuesday to decide whether or not to seek addi-tional financing options to build a replacement for South Middle School. During a study session Wednesday evening, school dis - trict officials advised the board that construction bids for a new South Middle School came in at $61.4 million, a figure that does not include contingency funds for unseen issues. The district plans on using nearly $47.8 mil-lion in Elementary and Second-ary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding to build the replacement school -- leaving Please see RCAS, Page A3 at least a $13.6 million shortfall. RCAS Facility Manager Kumar Veluswamy said inflation, supply-chain slowdowns and a short-age of workers during the C OVID -19 pandemic have driven costs up. "You've probably seen this day-to-day with gas, diesel and what's happening on the market," he said. In order to deal with the shortfall, a contingency fund and adjustments for future cost spikes, district staff is projecting that an ad-ditional $15.4 to $20 million in funding will be needed to complete the South Middle School project. Coupled with the time frames that are set in law for using ESSER funds, RCAS Director of Business Coy Sasse said the school board will need to take actionbefore interest rates climb. Sasse said the school dis-trict can contribute up to $4.3 million from the district's capital outlay fund without depleting its already low lev-els. The school district would then need to seek financing for the remaining $15 million to $20 million. "What I think is a good route forward is to bring a resolution for financing be-fore the board next week. Just to be clear, this wouldn't be the transaction. It would allow us to tell the finance company that we're going to engage in financing, lock in the rates immediately and keep us away from (inter-est) rate creep over the next month or two," Sasse said. Superintendent Lori Si-mon warned the board that the district needs to ade-quately maintain and sup-port the capital outlay bud- get, and that is why staff is recommending additional financing. Sasse agreed. "It's going to make us more mindful of the resources we have in capital outlay, more mindful of how we treat the general fund flexibility trans - fer, but it is certainly possi-ble to do," he said. "Without a bond, we're never going to be able to address all facility issues the district has." A $189 million school bond proposal to deal with many facility issues in the district failed in 2020. Although 56% of voters supported the bond issue, it failed to garner the required 60% threshold --something that school board member Troy Carr pointed out during Wednesday's meeting. "This action is the result of not being able to get 60% of our community wanting to say yes to the bond," he said. "Now, we are having to borrow $20 million. ... If you all voted, we wouldn't be in this situation. I don't want to be mean-spirited, but the financial truth is this is why we are having to borrow $20 million. "Again, this is the reality. We're always going to stay behind unless (a board mem-ber) wins the lottery and do - nates it to the schools. We're always going to be behind. Maybe in some small little way, this will set the ground work if and when we work on the next bond, but this is what happens when you don't say yes (to a school bond)." Another need that the school board is expected to address Tuesday is to move some students and programs at Canyon Lake Elementary School to Horace Mann El-ementary School because of failing infrastructure. In December, the school board voted against purchas - ing a new $1.4 million HVAC system for Canyon Lake El-ementary School, citing the numerous problems with the building. Simon and Veluswamy have noted a host of prob-lems with the facility, in-cluding water table con-cerns, structural and me-chanical issues, air quality concerns, outdated elec-trical capacity, and limited educational suitability. The school is divided into six buildings, including four annexes - a situation Ve-luswamy has noted leads to lost instructional time as students move from building to building. As a solution to taking some of the stress away from the aging building and to avoid a total failure of the HVAC system, the Board of Education will consider a recommendation to move special education students and some pilot programs --like the Lakota Immersion Program -- to Horace Mann Elementary School. Under the proposal, kin-dergarten through sec-ond-grade students will be able to stay in the Can-yon Lake East building, third-graders would stay in the annex buildings, and fourth- through fifth-grad-ers would be able to stay in their classrooms. All of these classrooms are located in ar-eas where the HVAC system is operating properly. "It seems to be our best emergency situation," board member Amy Policky said. "It's kind of a tragic state-ment, kind of hodge-podg-ing things together where kids spend time getting a good education. This is why we have the resources that we do." Contact Nathan Thompson at nathan.thompson@ rapidcityjournal.com. ____________________________________________________________ Project no: 2021-008, 21-179 (AEI) This Project is federally funded and must follow the Davis-Bacon Act guidelines Project Start Date March 1,2022 Project Completion Date - New Building May 31 2024 Project Completion Date - Existing Demo and South Parking Lot - August 31 2024. The Board of Education will pass upon the opened bids at the abouve address or other predesignated place of meeting within thirty days. The Board of Education reserves the right to reject any and all bids and to waive any and all informalities.