Cassville Schools begins Vision 150 projects
Even the administrators got in on the demolition action to kick off the Vision 150 project at Cassville Elementary. Pictured, middle school principal Jimmie Barton and high school assistant principal Nathan Carter haul out the old in preparation of the new.
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Cassville primary principal Catherine Weaver helped to haul off the old materials during the demolition phase of classroom improvements in the elementary building.
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May 29, 2019
Vinnie Roberts
During the General Municipal Election on April 2, voters in the Cassville school district elected to pass Cassville’s Vision 150 no-tax increase bond. Cassville voters elected to pass the bond by a margin of 74.71, and after the bonds were sold following the board of education meeting in May, the bond measure generated $4.1 million for the purposes of making renovations to the various facilities within the district.
“After the election, the board took several different initial steps to initiate those project priorities with our teachers and our community, as well as the architect and our construction manager,” said Dr. Richard Asbill, superintendent of Cassville Schools. “We’re going ahead moving forward with all of our tentative plans that we had identified as part of Vision 150.”
According to Asbill, the main focuses of the project have always been the construction of a new early childhood development center, renovations to the electrical system, general renovations to the school’s “vintage wing,” and updates to school playgrounds.
In order to facilitate these projects, the board of education elected work with Paragon Architecture, of Springfield. The board also elected to work with Branco Enterprises, a construction company with offices in both Neosho and Springfield, for their construction planning.
Asbill went on to explain that, due to the nature and scale of the projects, physical work has yet to begin, though the projects are currently in the planning and design stages.
“Those are all construction-based projects,” said Asbill. “We have not started digging footers or tearing out walls or any of that because we need to get approved architectural plans, engineering plans and all of the scopes of work for those plans would need to be identified.”
“Our goal is that we want those projects to begin in August or September,” Asbill continued. “Hopefully, we’ll start to see demolition, renovation and new construction begin at that time.”
Asbill continued, stating that it is the goal of the administration to bring about this construction in the least disruptive way possible.
“We know that starting school in August is going to happen, so if we can get our first couple of weeks underway before we put up construction fence and bring in the backhoes, that won’t necessarily be a delay. We don’t want to overwhelm kids and parents. We want to phase that in as school starts up,” said Asbill.
Though the main component projects funded by Vision 150 have yet to begin construction, school employees and contractors have already begun work on several other minor projects.
“Dusty Reid (Cassville’s Director of Facilities and Operations) is working on our security cameras,” explained Asbill. “We’ve already taken care of the server updates, so all we need now is to place the new cameras in the new places to give us additional security.”
Additionally, the administration is awaiting bids on upgrades to the school’s intercom and communication systems with the expectation that they will be presented to the board during the next board meeting in June.
Of the more minor projects associated with the bond, the one most progressed is the removal and replacement of the cabinets in the first and second grade classrooms.
The previous cabinets and the classroom sinks, many of which were no longer functional, were removed from all 15 of the rooms associated with the project.
“We’re in progress of the replacement of the cabinets,” said Asbill. “Our crews took care of that and the plumbing repair. We’re currently evaluating a cabinet vendor this week for the install.”
Asbill explained that in order to save money, the school’s maintenance staff, as well as teachers and members of the administrations from all Cassville buildings, set to work on Monday, May 20, demolishing the cabinets and exposing the ceramic wall behind them. Maintenance staff then set to work on repairing and removing the plumbing elements from the rooms.
“We have saved some money because we have done some demolition and prep work with our own staff in-house. Our administrative team jumped in and did a lot of work,” explained Asbill. “I am really honored and humbled work with people who understand that there is not only a fiscal value, but a love for your district enough to be hands on with it. I’m really proud of what our teachers and our administrators did jumping in to work with our custodial staff.”
Asbill also explained that the district’s maintenance staff has been an invaluable part of the remodelling process.
“Our maintenance and custodial staff do an exceptional job at keeping that work in house and helping us use those taxpayers dollars as efficiently as we can,” said Asbill.
For the rebuilding of the cabinets, the board opted to hire Bud Lowe Construction, of Cassville, to frame the cabinets. Lowe’s company has also been hired to work on the construction of the new concession stand, a project unrelated to the Vision 150 projects.
Cassville administrators are currently reviewing bids on the cabinets themselves, with proposals and recommendations expected to be made to the board at the June board meeting.
Once completed, each of the classrooms will house five upper cabinets and five lower cabinets, as well as two floor-to-ceiling cabinets. In total, the project will see the placement of 185 cabinets throughout the first and second grade classrooms as well as the elementary art room.
The cabinet project will cost the district approximately $150,000 once completed. According to Asbill, this phase of the project is expected to be completed by July 25.
Vinnie Roberts
During the General Municipal Election on April 2, voters in the Cassville school district elected to pass Cassville’s Vision 150 no-tax increase bond. Cassville voters elected to pass the bond by a margin of 74.71, and after the bonds were sold following the board of education meeting in May, the bond measure generated $4.1 million for the purposes of making renovations to the various facilities within the district.
“After the election, the board took several different initial steps to initiate those project priorities with our teachers and our community, as well as the architect and our construction manager,” said Dr. Richard Asbill, superintendent of Cassville Schools. “We’re going ahead moving forward with all of our tentative plans that we had identified as part of Vision 150.”
According to Asbill, the main focuses of the project have always been the construction of a new early childhood development center, renovations to the electrical system, general renovations to the school’s “vintage wing,” and updates to school playgrounds.
In order to facilitate these projects, the board of education elected work with Paragon Architecture, of Springfield. The board also elected to work with Branco Enterprises, a construction company with offices in both Neosho and Springfield, for their construction planning.
Asbill went on to explain that, due to the nature and scale of the projects, physical work has yet to begin, though the projects are currently in the planning and design stages.
“Those are all construction-based projects,” said Asbill. “We have not started digging footers or tearing out walls or any of that because we need to get approved architectural plans, engineering plans and all of the scopes of work for those plans would need to be identified.”
“Our goal is that we want those projects to begin in August or September,” Asbill continued. “Hopefully, we’ll start to see demolition, renovation and new construction begin at that time.”
Asbill continued, stating that it is the goal of the administration to bring about this construction in the least disruptive way possible.
“We know that starting school in August is going to happen, so if we can get our first couple of weeks underway before we put up construction fence and bring in the backhoes, that won’t necessarily be a delay. We don’t want to overwhelm kids and parents. We want to phase that in as school starts up,” said Asbill.
Though the main component projects funded by Vision 150 have yet to begin construction, school employees and contractors have already begun work on several other minor projects.
“Dusty Reid (Cassville’s Director of Facilities and Operations) is working on our security cameras,” explained Asbill. “We’ve already taken care of the server updates, so all we need now is to place the new cameras in the new places to give us additional security.”
Additionally, the administration is awaiting bids on upgrades to the school’s intercom and communication systems with the expectation that they will be presented to the board during the next board meeting in June.
Of the more minor projects associated with the bond, the one most progressed is the removal and replacement of the cabinets in the first and second grade classrooms.
The previous cabinets and the classroom sinks, many of which were no longer functional, were removed from all 15 of the rooms associated with the project.
“We’re in progress of the replacement of the cabinets,” said Asbill. “Our crews took care of that and the plumbing repair. We’re currently evaluating a cabinet vendor this week for the install.”
Asbill explained that in order to save money, the school’s maintenance staff, as well as teachers and members of the administrations from all Cassville buildings, set to work on Monday, May 20, demolishing the cabinets and exposing the ceramic wall behind them. Maintenance staff then set to work on repairing and removing the plumbing elements from the rooms.
“We have saved some money because we have done some demolition and prep work with our own staff in-house. Our administrative team jumped in and did a lot of work,” explained Asbill. “I am really honored and humbled work with people who understand that there is not only a fiscal value, but a love for your district enough to be hands on with it. I’m really proud of what our teachers and our administrators did jumping in to work with our custodial staff.”
Asbill also explained that the district’s maintenance staff has been an invaluable part of the remodelling process.
“Our maintenance and custodial staff do an exceptional job at keeping that work in house and helping us use those taxpayers dollars as efficiently as we can,” said Asbill.
For the rebuilding of the cabinets, the board opted to hire Bud Lowe Construction, of Cassville, to frame the cabinets. Lowe’s company has also been hired to work on the construction of the new concession stand, a project unrelated to the Vision 150 projects.
Cassville administrators are currently reviewing bids on the cabinets themselves, with proposals and recommendations expected to be made to the board at the June board meeting.
Once completed, each of the classrooms will house five upper cabinets and five lower cabinets, as well as two floor-to-ceiling cabinets. In total, the project will see the placement of 185 cabinets throughout the first and second grade classrooms as well as the elementary art room.
The cabinet project will cost the district approximately $150,000 once completed. According to Asbill, this phase of the project is expected to be completed by July 25.