Beatrice School Board hears from architects, on planned new elementary school

BEATRICE – The Beatrice Board of Education heard presentations from two architectural firms Thursday night, as it starts the process of building a new one-thousand student, single-site prekindergarten through fifth grade building.

The district plans to use a financing mechanism that would not require additional taxes, beyond the district’s levy. The DLR Group and BCDM Architects met with the board in the early stages of the design process.

K-12 Designer Vanessa Schutte of the DLR Group says one way the district could speed up the project is by adapting largely already designed facilities to the district’s site between Beatrice High School and BSDC.  "The way that we set up site-adapts...just so you understand, is there a site-adapt fee which is a reduced fee of starting from scratch. But then there is an hourly fee, a not-to-exceed fee for changes that you would ask for. That's kind of the approach."

The firm displayed examples of several school buildings whose design could be adapted to Beatrice. Pre-cast construction also has the potential to speed up the project. The district is planning to select a construction manager for the school project.  DLR Project Manager Aaron Persen says the site adapt process is flexible.

"Once we choose a concept or maybe even before, we'll go through and look at every space, what size you need. You are not buying a floor plan that can't be modified. This is a concept, a structure is there....walls inside of that structure can easily be tweaked, so you can make classrooms a little bigger, a little smaller...we can add on classes....it's very flexible."

BCDM Principal Architect Pat Carson says his firm has worked with Douglas County West Schools, Lincoln Public Schools, Millard and Ralston, which just passed a bond issue.

"They're further along in their process...a lot of their projects are taking their existing buildings, those 1970s open plans and closing them off. They haven't passed a bond in 22 years and so its a big deal to them that they passed it, and they're very excited."

The Beatrice School Board could select an architectural firm at its December regular meeting, next Monday. School officials hope to complete design in early 2022 with the goal of beginning construction next summer.  Recently, the district established an interlocal education agency agreement with ESU Number Five, that would oversee issuing of bonds backed by school district building funds.