Keith Vandervort
ELY – With numerous questions and feedback in hand, and a recent plea for major adjustments, ISD 696 school board members gathered at a study session Monday night to ponder their next moves for a $20 million building project that is more than $4 million over budget.
Following a special study session with district principals and a building facilities committee meeting last week, board members met with the project architect and construction managers to work through the mounting challenges of providing a modern educational facility for the Ely community.
More than $12 million in construction bids, mainly for the campus’s new building, were approved earlier this spring. A second bid package, primarily for the renovation and modernization of the district’s existing Memorial and Washington buildings, was budgeted at about $4 million but came in at $8 million. The bids of the second construction package were rejected last month and officials hope to rebid that project scope at a smaller scale later this year.