SIOUX CITY | The Sioux City public school district remains on track to open two new elementary schools over the next three four years.
In both cases, old schools will be replaced with new buildings bearing the same name.
The new Bryant Elementary, which will house grades K-5, is set to open in August 2019. The new Hunt Elementary, also a K-5 school, is projected to open in 2022.
School district officials are aiming to construct a new Bryant to replace the old building that dates to 1890 and was demolished in summer 2016 at 821 30th St. That happened after considerable neighborhood controversy on where the school should be built. After a new 10-acre spot could not be found, school officials morphed to a three-level option at the same spot as the old school was located. The size will be 106,950 square feet.
"We are on schedule for that building," school district Director of Operations and Maintenance Brian Fahrendholz said.
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Work began in August, and a major advance boosted the project in December. Fahrendholz said the weather cooperated, so the building could be enclosed by mid-December, which meant workers could proceed with interior work during winter in a heated environment.
"That is a huge step," Fahrendholz said.
The spring and summer months will include work on concrete masonry walls and other exterior finishing tasks. By late January, the gymnasium outline was visible.
The school board in June approved a low bid of $17.3 million for the main part of the work from Hoogendoorn Construction, of Canton, South Dakota. Counting two earlier phases, the total cost stands at around $21 million.
Fahrendholz said Hoogendoorn workers have done well.
"They have kept the site in good working order. We are very pleased," he said.
While the new Bryant is being built, the school's students are attending classes in the former Crescent Park Elementary building, which is currently known as Bryant Elementary.
As plans for a new Hunt Elementary keep moving along, a midtown neighborhood is changing in the 1900 blocks of Jackson and Nebraska streets.
Homes are being sold along both sides of the street, with the expectation that they be demolished starting in April, Fahrendholz said.
The school board in December approved the $170,000 purchase of a property owned by Lou and Janice Jackson at 1909 Jackson St., in a price that includes relocation and moving expenses. Many others have gone for $120,000 and up.
The school district has three more homes to buy to obtain all 11 in the area needed for the Hunt footprint, which could be done by March.
"The district is working through the remaining acquisitions to fully assemble the site for the new Hunt Elementary School," Fahrendholz said.
That is being done in order to get rid of the more-than-century-old Hunt Elementary School in the 2000 blocks of the streets, in order to build a new one just to the south. The existing school will be demolished after students use the building for one last year through May 2019, then for a few years they will be routed to other schools, including Bryant.
The current Hunt Elementary is at 615 20th St. The school dates to 1906, making it by far the oldest in the city’s public school system.
Fahrendholz said a final design of the roughly 80,000 square foot building is underway.
At a December school board meeting, members followed the recommendation by the district's Building Oversight Committee to keep the school to two levels and not build a third floor, which could have raised the cost by $2 million.
Director of Elementary Education Brian Burnight said projected student numbers from the neighborhood did not necessitate building a school with three levels. There are 434 students now living in the Hunt attendance boundaries, and school officials said it is not necessary to have the bigger building with another floor to hold 575 students.
