Early childhood addition scheduled

A timeline for the early childhood facility addition at the elementary and middle school building has been tentatively scheduled, with a school move in August 2025. The Creston Community School Board approved on Sept. 4 the spending of $19 million on this project.

Funds used will go against the district’s future school infrastructure sales, services and use tax revenue bonds.

“There is no impact on taxes,” said Superintendent Deron Stender. “We are borrowing against future revenues.”

Eric Beron of DLR Group explained the process to the school board Monday night.

“We are getting ready to kick off on the planning period of your new early childhood center addition on the elementary and middle school campus,” Beron said. “The schedule here, it takes us basically from today through construction and opening. What we do is break down that design process into a couple of manageable phases, the first being predesign.”

The predesign process, already in motion, is where DLR Group and CCSD members will find inspiration through other schools in Iowa, along with attending a number of workshops.

“We often like to start off with seeing what’s out there,” Beron said. “Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know. Understanding some other examples that have been done around the state, we’ll play around some visual tours and some virtual tours of facilities.”

Beron explained that doing it this way will result in a space unique to Creston, rather than a cookie-cutter design.

The second phase, schematic design, will kick off on Nov.r 13 with a design team meeting. Schematic design includes a complete description of building systems (structural, mechanical, HVAC, plumbing and electrical), interior and exterior finishes and the building site.

Phase two will end with approval of the schematic design from the school board on Dec. 18. Next comes design development and construction documents, both lasting eight weeks a piece. The bidding process will begin April 16.

The construction phase of the new addition will begin with a public hearing on May 5. If everything goes according to plan, the school will be ready for move-in in August 2025.

DLR Group has submitted a tentative project expense summary, which stands at $23,391,043.