Humboldt School Board hears facilities study report
Humboldt welcomes 13 new teaching staff members for the new school year, which begins next week. Pictured, from left, front row: Amy Gotto, Rebecka Allen, Tiffany Wurth, Amanda Altman, Kayla Long, Katie Phillips , Morgan Weydert and Amberly Smith. Back row: Joel Hanus, Nick Dosland, Matthew Railsback, Holly Stockdale and Dani Buhs. Independent photo by Phil Monson.
By PHIL MONSON
The highly anticipated district facilities study was unveiled at the Humboldt School Board meeting Monday night (Aug. 16).
In the board’s monthly meeting, Ryan Ellsworth of Estes Construction of Davenport, who serves the Iowa Association of School Boards which provides a service to districts in Iowa, said the district’s high school building has the most pressing needs but is structurally in great shape.
Ellsworth said the good news is that overall the district’s percentage of infrastructure and improvement needs in the “urgent” category are quite low.
Ellsworth said both Mease and Taft Schools have areas that do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and the Taft building has asbestos in the existing flooring. He reported that HVAC controls and boilers have reached the end of their useful life at both centers.
“Our next step as an administrative team will be to dive into this report and come up with a short term and long term plan. We’ll work on that side of it and we have some committee folks helping us out, too,” Humboldt Superintendent of Schools Jim Murray said.
