School board moves ahead on facilities project

By Tara Brandl

The District No. 2904 School Board on Monday took one step closer to determining the future of the Tracy Area Public Schools’ facilities projects at its regular school board meeting Monday night.

The board approved the hiring of sitelogiQ as the facility assessment company to guide TAPS in updating the school facilities at 14.9% of the cost of construction, which includes all service and fees related to mechanical/electrical/plumbing or deferred maintenance projects and includes referendum support and services should the board choose to pursue a bond referendum.

“At this point in time, if the board approves this, it doesn’t mean we’re going for a vote in August,” TAPS Supt. Chad Anderson said. “However, it does mean we need to start talking about our plan and working with them. There is a timeline we have to follow if you’d like to go to a vote in August or November, or next year. We need to start putting the pieces together, and we need to start deciding what we are going to do.”

Anderson explained that Monday’s move was just phase one of the project and will determine the company that will be “in the driver’s seat for the next two, three years and beyond. The reason this is such a big decision is because if we go ahead with a vote and in the next summer or two we’re doing all these projects, this company is stuck with us for the next five to 10 years, as well as to make sure that oversight continuation of everything has been done and done correctly. They’re going to be with us for the long haul. It’s a big decision and an important one for the future of our district.”

The board also approved the FY23 capital outlay requests. The approved requests included district-wide, $22,750; building and grounds, $17,950; secondary school, $35,170; elementary school, $12,870; Long Term Facilities Maintenance (LTFM), $352,295; Safe Schools, $25,500; technology, $136,810; library areas, $6,900; and activities/athletics $41,500 for a total of $651,745.

See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.