In the near future, Paxton Consolidated school students will be enjoying a new gymnasium, new commons area and classroom space after voters approved an $8.215 million bond issue.

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CG Architects of North Platte are project designers.

Of 797 registered voters in the school district, 380 cast ballots (48 percent turnout). Sixty-one percent of the voters approved, with 232 voting for the project and 148 voting against. The election was Nov. 10.

“I’m excited and I’m relieved,” Superintendent Del Dack said.

The project includes:

-- 13,000 square foot renovation of the existing school building,

-- 27,000 square foot addition.

Specifically, the cafeteria will be expanded and the kitchen will be updated. The music and industrial arts departments will be resituated to allow for expansion of the industrial arts department and curriculum.

The Title I department will be moved to allow for expansion of student services and the kindergarten area will be moved to make room for a new commons area.

The new construction includes four additional classrooms, office areas, a resource classroom and a multi-purpose gymnasium that can seat more than 300.

New locker rooms will double as a storm shelter space.

“I’m happy for the community and the kids of Paxton that they’ll be provided with quality facilities,” Paxton Kids First committee member Jeremy Spurgin said.

Also included in the project are additional bus barn stalls as well as furniture and equipment for the building.

Dack said work would begin in the spring and completion is set for the fall of 2011.

Cost of the project is $8.215 million, of which:

-- $4 million will be for new construction,

-- $1.2 million for renovation of the existing building,

-- $1.33 million for the new mechanical and electrical for the existing school, and

-- $535,000 for fire suppression equipment, site work and an addition to the bus barn.

An additional $1.2 million will cover construction management, architectural and engineering fees, specs, miscellaneous expenses and bond fees.

CG architects of North Platte are the architects and BD Construction of Kearney is the general contractor. Ameritus Investment Corp. will oversee the bond.

The levy to support the bond will be .293 cents per $100 valuation. Those bonds will run for 20 years.

Paul Heinrich, Paxton school board vice president and chairman of the building committee, said he is grateful for the support of the community.

“We appreciate their vote of confidence in the school board and project we brought to them, and that they recognized the need, as we did,’ Heinrich said.

Paxton Consolidated Schools was originally built in 1956. In 1974 a band room was added; in 1996, a library, media center and distance learning room.

Mary Pierce is News Editor of the Keith County News in Ogallala, where this article was published Nov. 11. Reprinted with permission.