SEPTEMBER BUILDING UPDATE
SEPTEMBER 2009

I hope you had an opportunity to attend the Open Houses at both school sites on Thursday, August 27, 2009, and see our beautiful facilities. I know we had a great turnout and heard many positive comments regarding the facilities. I believe the patrons of our school district can take a great deal of pride in these facilities and feel comfortable knowing students in our district have facilities that are clean, up-to-date, beautiful and functional. I would like to thank all the sub-contractors who worked long hours in completing the project for Open House and the start of school on Monday, August 31, 2009. I know many schools that were undergoing construction that were not able to open on time or were not completed to the point to which our project was completed. We were very lucky to have a dedicated workforce who was committed to completing this phase of the project on time.

As usual, we have many odds and ends to address in “finishing” the first phase of the project. Like all construction projects, we have “punch list” items that will need to be addressed over the next several weeks before the subcontractors are given approval for final payment. We are fortunate to have only minor “punch list” items that need to be addressed. Our hope is to have the “punch list” items completed in the next few weeks. Regardless, we will have workers throughout the facilities at various times of the day addressing their “punch list” requirements. We will attempt to complete these items with as little intrusion into the educational process as possible. This will result in having workers before and after school and on weekends.

As you may know, the final phase of the project is the remodeling of six classrooms at Elmwood and five at Murdock. This phase of the project is going very well with electrical work and drywall installation planned for completion on or before Wednesday, September 23, 2009. At that point, the painting of walls, installation of ceiling tile and lights can begin. The project schedule calls for this phase to be completed by November 1, 2009, with moving into these remodeled classrooms scheduled for the week of November 14, 2009. This is a very aggressive schedule and completes the project a full six weeks prior to our initial date of completion. We are very excited with the progress that is taking place on this final phase and are looking forward to making our final moves to complete the project.

At the September Board Meeting, the Board of Education set official the Dedication Ceremony for the new facilities for Sunday, November 22, 2009, at 2:00 p.m. Due to logistics, the official Dedication Ceremony will take place in the new gym at Murdock. Both buildings will be open for visitation from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the day of the dedication. Refreshments will be provided by the Board of Education for those attending the dedication ceremonies. We would like to invite all our patrons, graduates and all interested parties to the Dedication Ceremony as we view this as a very important date in the history of our school district. If you can't attend the Dedication Ceremony, we hope you will at least be able to visit the facilities on this date to see our new facilities. If you can’t make the Dedication Ceremony scheduled for November 22, please contact the school at 867-2341 to schedule a visit. We certainly would like to show you the new facilities.

In conclusion, we are very excited to be in our new facilities and the great environment it provides our students and staff. We all feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work in this great facility and are very thankful of the sacrifices our patrons are making in providing these facilities for us. It is important that we remember these facilities belong to the patrons in our district and have been built to provide a high quality educational environment for students. I look forward to seeing all of you at the Dedication Ceremony on Sunday, November 22, 2009, at 2:00 p.m.

Dan Novak, Superintendent
Elmwood-Murdock Public Schools