When I first moved to Minneota, my wife and I dreamed of building
our dream house. We rented a couple of different houses and narrowed our
dreams to focus on one particular house plan. During this time, we were
in the middle of a building project here at school (modernizing the
offices/improving building security) and ever since that project, I’ve
magically lost my desire to build my dream house or any house at all!
Building projects are complicated, expensive, and are plain and simple A
LOT of work! Fast forward a few years and I’m once again finding myself
headfirst into blueprints, long-meetings, and constantly asking contractors
questions like “What will that cost?” and “Can that wall surface be easily
damaged by a student?” I’ve even become an expert on toilet sizes and can speak
fluently about “solar tubes.” This will be the third building project in my
tenure here at Minneota Public Schools and I can assure you I’m not whining or
complaining about building projects. It’s just the opposite, actually!
I fully realize how blessed I am to work in a community that is
supportive of its school and for a school board that aggressively attacks areas
of deficiency in our school district.
What is the process like?
We have a lot of meetings with a lot of different people.
We’ve had two meetings that were long and arduous and had more than a
dozen people in attendance. In attendance, we had the head contractor
from CTS Group, Joe Henn, engineers in the plumbing and electrical worlds,
architects from various firms, board members, school administration, and our
Athletic Director and Facilities Manager. Making decisions in these large
group meetings can be challenging as there are many different opinions at the
table. At the end of the day, we are trying to make the best “30-year
decisions.” We want to make the best decision for our current
students/staff AND our future students/staff. We’ve also had small
committee meetings where we “zero in and focus” on topics like the locker rooms
and the gyms. This week, I’ll be meeting with high school teachers to select the new flooring for the high school rooms! Picking out
flooring for my own house is stressful enough, let alone picking out a floor
that is supposed to last for “30 years!” I’m glad I have a group of teachers willing to help make this decision!
I learned in the first two building projects that being extremely
detailed and bold enough to interrupt and correct things during meetings is
essential to this whole process. In this building project there are new
classrooms being created, offices disappearing, and rooms being expanded.
Our administration team has met to go over the potential room/office placements
twice already, making sure that we don’t make any mistakes during the
planning process.
Many questions like “Will the two gyms be available at all next
summer?” and “Will the locker rooms be ready for the beginning of the falls
sports season?” all remain unanswered at this point in time. Once the
bids get opened in December, we’ll start to learn more and have a more detailed
timeline!
I do know one thing, this place is going to look beautiful when
this project is done! I personally can’t wait to see the kids’ faces when they
first get to see the new bathrooms, new floors, new lights, and all the other
improvements we hope to make!
Solar Tubes to be used in new interior classrooms.
