WESTPHALIA  — Fatima soliciting bids for main building project

Fatima R-3 board members voted to solicit bids for the main building project at their Nov. 22 meeting.

“As of this week, everything is on schedule,” said Superintendent Chuck Woody, noting that some concrete had been poured and retaining walls were taking shape. “But the metal is six weeks behind. We have a project completion date of March 12, but I don’t think that will happen. We’re still pretty fluid on how much we can speed them up.”

Bid documents are available at the office, and a pre-bid meeting will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 7. “Contractors can do a walk-through and ask questions,” said Woody.

Bids are due by Jan. 3, and board members will hold a special meeting to award a bid. Woody said moving forward, all board meetings will be in the high school library.

Alternate bids will also be considered, Woody noted, depending on funding.

Woody and his staff are preparing to move to the trailer and hope to be entirely out of the admin building by Dec. 12. He told the board the building has some asbestos, which the contractor will address before the next phase.

Once the project begins, Woody said the plan is to start with the gym and work out from there. “They say we can be in there on Jan. 1, 2025,” said Woody. “We should be in classrooms and offices in March or early April.”

He is hopeful that is the case because he wants to make sure there’s enough time to navigate the new building between classes. “Students have four minutes between classes to get where they need to be,” said Woody. “If we get into the building in early April, we could have a six-week trial to determine whether we need to add time between classes.”

One of the big question marks is parking. “It’s a nightmare,” said Woody. “We have sufficient parking for staff. Student parking is more of an issue.”

The superintendent told board members he surveyed many student drivers if they would rather carpool or park at the Lions field and catch a shuttle to the school.

“Every single student driver I talked to said they would find a way to carpool,” said Woody. “They asked me not to make them ride the bus.”

Only softball and baseball players would benefit from parking at the field since they would return for practice during their respective seasons. Athletes in other sports would have to drive back to the school for practice.

“If we can get students to double or triple up, we’ll be okay,” said Woody, adding the buses will have to park off campus. “Our parking plan will likely change as we move forward.”

Remaining business will be presented next week.