(Spirit Lake)– The Spirit Lake school board Monday evening decided to go ahead with the next phase of its facility improvement project.
It will consist of six additional classrooms at the middle school. The project has a total estimated cost of 1.7 million dollars, but the district will have only 1.3 million available this year. 953-thousand of that will come from a federal matching grant. To accomodate the budget, only three of the six classrooms will be finished for now. Plans call for a bidletting in mid-June with construction hopefully getting started in mid-July.
The board also hoped a remodeling of the Schuchert Circle in the high school and an upgrade of the building’s mechanical system could take place at the same time as the middle school project. But due to funding limitations, they decided to push that project back.
The board also Monday accepted resignations from five faculty members that have a combined 124 years of experience with the Spirit Lake school system. They accepted early retirement resignations from Jim Hietbrink, who served eight years as a business teacher and volleyball coach; Chuck Rizzutti, who taught math and algebra at the middle school for 33 years; Ernie Backerman, who served 30 years as seventh grade science teacher and seventh grade volleyball co-coach; and Terry Osgerby, who’s stepping down after 29 years as a middle school social studies teacher, head boys track coach and seventh grade boys basketball coach. They also accepted the resignation of Jill Backerman, who’s calling it quits after 24 years of teaching level one middle school special education.
