Haakon BOE chooses plan for school building

    A special Haakon School District Board of Education, Wednesday, Nov. 2, was held to approve two major steps in the process of building a new school building in Philip.
    The board formally agreed to hire Scull Construction Service, Rapid City, in the capacity of construction manager.
    The board also, unanimously, approved a building design. The building committee had worked with the architect and the construction manager to provide two options for the building project. Input from instructors and the community was taken into account. Superintendent Keven Morehart said the chosen plan was preferred overwhelmingly by the instructors. The design process will move forward with the selected option.
    Construction will include and go north from the armory and the fine arts building. The building’s main entrance, the security entrance, is about where the northeast entrance is now. A minor entrance, mostly for high school students at the beginning of the school day, will be closed during the rest of the day. Though the school will be one building, the elementary will be separate from the junior high and high school. The new kitchen cafeteria is between the two gyms. During extra curricular activities and community events, the gyms and cafeteria can be isolated from the classrooms.
    The playground is north of the building, and additional parking is northwest and west of the building. Details of the new building plan may be viewed at the business office.
    Barring uncommon weather or other unforeseen difficulties, the new building should be completed for the 2018-2019 school year.
    In other business, high school instructor Casey Jore will take the praxis examination during the first part of December. He will then be “highly qualified” in the subject of United States government.
    The board approved the Special Education Comprehensive Plan. This is the written plan that used to be provided for member districts of Black Hills Special Services Cooperative. Haakon School District now writes its own plan.
    The board also approved the annual agreement with the Philip Geothermal Group. This regularly renewed one-year contract stipulates that the cost to the geothermal group is the full cost of barium chloride for the school year. The cost for 2017 for the necessary compound to help purify the water before discharge is $11,020.
    The next regular meeting of the Haakon School District Board of Education is Monday, Nov. 14, at 6:00 p.m.
    Look for the official school board minutes in this issue of the Pioneer Review.

The Pioneer Review

221 E. Oak Street
Philip, SD 57567
Telephone: (605) 859-2516
E Mail: ads@pioneer-review.com

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