Sweet Home ISD bond project update

The Sweet Home Independent School District (SHISD) has been making some headway on its ongoing bond project.

“We are still in the design process,” SHISD’s Superintendent Candace Pohl said. “We have made a lot of progress in the design process. We have had a lot of virtual meetings with our architect and our contractor. We want to frontload a lot of the details and the planning, so we are spending a lot of time making sure that we are getting as much as we can with the amount of money we have. The timeline we have been getting from the architect is that we should have the design phase at 100% by the end of July. Assuming all of that goes well, we will start construction in September.”

The first construction that will occur will be the new PreK-5th grade classroom building. It will also include a new cafeteria. The building will be about 10,000 square feet. SHISD will also have another building connecting the Main Office to the Junior High facility. It was originally going to be a modular building but is now a regular building.

“The staff is very excited about that,” Pohl said. “We also recently had our geotechnical engineer come out and test the soil on where the building will be. That will make a difference in what the contractors will do.”

The architect is Makers Design Collaborative. Along with the new building, the board prioritized the renovation of the gym and the septic system.

“We will have AC in the new gym,” Pohl said. “The structure itself will stay the same. It will, however, need to be re-skimmed with new flooring and ceiling and lights. I’ve also asked for a sound system in there because we use that as our event center. We’re always tracking a stereo in there so it would be nice to have a new system.”

The new building will be built on the side of the fence. The school is enclosed and there shouldn’t be much disturbance as the contractors construct the new building. It will not affect school activities; however, there could be loud noises as they are building.

“That’s something we’ll need to talk about with our Junior High teachers,” Pohl said. “They are excited, but we still have construction that needs to be done. They will not be interfering with our day-to-day operations.”

Pohl said that the staff and teachers are very excited about this project.

“It was really nice for them to see progress,” Pohl said. “The teachers have had a little bit of input into the design of the blueprint of the new building. We haven’t gotten to the point yet where we can pick out floor samples or paint and colors for the building. They will be able to offer input though when those things come along. There’s a lot of measures that go around a project like this.”

Gallagher Construction is the district’s program manager, and they come to the board meetings often to discuss what is happening. Those interested in learning more updates as they come can attend SHISD’s board meetings. They are generally on the second Monday of each month.

Pohl aims for this project to be completed next year. There may be a ribbon cutting ceremony as it’s completed.