New BPS school process moving forward

BEATRICE – The Beatrice Public School District is continuing to move toward a new pre-kindergarten to fifth grade building to replace the district’s set of four buildings spaced throughout the community.  Supertinendent Jason Alexander says a selection committee has met to narrow down the list of construction management firms for the new prekindergarten to fifth grade building.

"We have identified four that will be coming in this Wednesday to interview, so that's how that process works. Then, from those four, there will be one selected to begin a negotiations process with."

Alexander said the selection process takes a lot of time. Once a construction manager is identified, another step is setting a maximum guaranteed price for the new school. After that, the financing plan will be undertaken.

"I would anticipate that hopefully by the end of February or the first of March, we will have a solid set of discussions going on and negotiations process with the banks."

The new school will be built on property the district owns between Lincoln Street and U.S. Highway 136, north of Beatrice High School.

Meanwhile, negotiations between the Beatrice School District and the Beatrice Education Association representing teachers are getting closer to moving to mediation.  School Board Negotiating Committee Chairperson Janet Byars says a February 8th deadline passed to reach agreement on a teacher contract for next year, allowing either side to seek mediation. There have been five meetings between the two sides.

Another meeting is being scheduled to seek agreement. Byars says she’s hopeful some resolution can be reached.  If no agreement comes by the end of March, the contract negotiations automatically head to mediation.