By Harold Reutter
harold.reutter@theindependent.com

Although the projects were ranked from one to 35, Grand Island school district business manager Virgil Harden called the project a "fluid list. Some projects might get dropped off and others might come on."

Only a few projects are immutable.

Harden said the top 20 projects on the list probably will be completed, with the exception of a proposal to create a preschool site.

On the list, that preschool site is listed as being at the Administration Building or in some other location, but Harden said the project would likely lose out to a proposed 12-classroom addition at Shoemaker Elementary.

Harden noted the board voted to lease space from Third City Christian Church to operate preschool classes for the coming school year. As a result, any other action on providing preschool classroom space might be postponed, he said.

Harden said projects carried over from previous years are more likely to get done this year, even if they are farther down the list than No. 20. Other lower-ranked items more likely to be completed are the less expensive projects costing less than $10,000, he said.

The 22nd item on the list, redoing the entrance to Walnut Middle School, also will be done because the city of Grand Island won a Safe Route to Schools Grant to do the work. The school district is contributing money to the project.

At the top of the list: district-performed work on the remodel of the old Westridge into the new Engleman Elementary, followed by putting modular classrooms at Stolley Park, Wasmer and West Lawn.

There also are plans to create a preschool site at the Administration Building, build the multiple classroom addition at Shoemaker, convert a storeroom into a classroom at Gates Elementary, and move the alternative high school, SANDS, to the old Engleman Elementary.

Harden said moving the alternative high school, SANDS, into the old Engleman very well could be a temporary location for that program. But for the time being, the district plans to continue using the old Engleman, which would not be remodeled to accommodate the SANDS alternative high school program.

Over the longer term, SANDS might be in a new location and old Engleman may be used by the district for other purposes, Harden said.

The board on Thursday night took action on one project on the list, buying a house on the northwest side of Jefferson school, with the intention that the area will be converted into a parking lot.

Gates Elementary will get a new employee parking lot, Jefferson Elementary will be reroofed, Seedling Mile will have gutters and roof drains installed on the older part of the building, Stolley Park and Gates will get new window blinds, Senior High will get updated stage lighting in the auditorium and Little Theater, and Walnut will relight its auditorium (lightboard) and revise its sound board.

A few of the remaining projects include adding security cameras to the existing system at Senior High as well as adding to and updating the security camera system at Walnut Middle School.

Bleacher replacement at Barr Middle School and expanding the kitchen and cabinents in the basement at the Indra house are on the "to-do" list, but at a lower ranking.

The Administration Building is scheuled to have its shop area reroofed, tuck point and repairing the exterior west and south facades, replacing the block sign at the main entrance and repaint the entire building, but that is farther down the list at No. 25.