Superintendent presents timeline for bond projects

Superintendent presents timeline for bond projects Image Tammy Vinson Sat, 06/15/2024 - 10:27 Body

Planning has begun on the first phase of the $157.15 million bond package approved by Sulphur Springs ISD voters in early May. For Tuesday’s school board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Deana Steeber presented a status update on the construction of the first of two new elementary campuses. Monthly project meetings between district staff and the architectural firm selected for the bond project will begin later this month.

Huckabee and Associates, located in Fort Worth, Texas, is the architectural firm selected to design the first new elementary school.

Between Wednesday, June 12 and July 25, the SSISD administration team will tour two elementary schools in the Dallas/Fort Worth area that were designed by the architectural firm.

“[On] Thursday, June 13, Huckabee [came] here to Sulphur Springs,” Steeber told the board. “We had a visioning session in the morning, and then they show[ed] us some virtual tours of some campuses they’ve designed.”

A visioning workshop involves a large group of stakeholders who represent users of the completed space, in this case, teachers, administrators and the facility staff. This takes place before design work begins, and the goal of the visioning workshop is to gather input from everyday building occupants and establish high-level goals that will inform future decisions. Once stakeholders’ wants and needs are identified, the next step is to work toward consensus, the superintendent explained.

Next, Steeber explained, the scope and budgets for both new elementary construction projects will be approved.

Starting July 5, architects will begin working on overall structural and schematic designs for the building, which are expected to be completed sometime in early September. Then, between September and mid-November, the architects will move into design development for the overall building, including finishes. From November to January 2025, the firm will complete construction documents to send out for bids, along with a city review to ensure all permits are in order.

Negotiations and contract awards are expected to go out prior to April 11, 2025, with building construction on the first new elementary campus projected to begin around March 25, 2025, with a tentative completion date of July 2026.