The Crookston School District School Board held a special meeting on Monday in the Highland Elementary School media center.
ACCEPTED BIDS-
The first item on the agenda was the multi-use athletic complex bids. The board unanimously approved the construction of artificial turf, track, grandstand, and press box. “Those three items we have had locked in place from three different vendors that we locked in with state bids,” said Crookston Superintendent Dave Kuehn. “All three of those were on bid and on budget so we approved those three tonight as a way to move forward on our multi-use complex.”
The artificial turf bid came in at $537,238 from Sprinturf and includes installation, maintenance equipment, and performance bonds.
The track bid came in at $232,856.
The grandstand and pressbox bid had seating for 779 people with a nine-row 150-foot grandstand and an 8 by 42-foot pressbox at $498,889.
The three bids came in $7,346 below the estimate.
ONE REJECTED BID
The board rejected the general construction/earthwork bid, which was over $1 million more than anticipated. The board decided to reject the bids that came in over 30 percent over the estimate and they will vote on re-bidding the earthwork/general construction bid in September with board approval at a future meeting.
The City of Crookston recently rejected the 2023 street project bid because the costs came back 40 percent higher than estimated. Warren-Alvarado-Oslo school district just announced that it will rebid its construction project in September because the bids came back significantly over budget. “The general construction of all the other things, the dirt work, concrete, asphalt, lighting, fencing, basically everything else beyond the three bids we approved was out for a general construction bid came back a little higher than what we were hoping for,” said Superintendent Kuehn. “A lot of it had to do with timing and having one bid on the dirtwork, which is a huge part of the project, came back over $1 million more than we had budgeted for. The bid has made the decision to go back and re-bid the projects.”
MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL AND BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONIST HIRED
The board approved the hiring of Cierra Hengsleben as the new Middle School Principal (grades 6-8). It will be a one-year contract with a salary of $92,000 and the board approved it unanimously. Hengsleben is a former University of North Dakota Women’s Basketball player.
The board also approved the hiring of Amy Luckow as a behavior interventionist with a salary of $71,000. Luckow has kids in the district and 17 years of teaching experience and a master’s degree. The board approved the hire unanimously.
“We are excited to bring in two new people that I think bring some strong leadership potential,” said Superintendent Kuehn. “They are both kind of new to these positions in terms of the positions they are stepping into and I think they are going to do some really great things for the Crookston School District and look for a lot of good things to come from these individuals as they grow in these positions.”
