Thursday, January 22, 2015

Estimated $325,000 to move Joplin R-8 Admin to Memorial

The Joplin R-8 Administration is getting the old heave ho from the former MODOT building at 32nd and Duquesne at the end of the current school year, but administration will be moving into familiar surroundings.

During a special board meeting Wednesday night, the R-8 Board of Education, on a vote of 6-1 with Debbie Fort casting the dissenting vote, approved the moving of administration from the MODOT Building to the former Memorial Middle School.

According to the Joplin Globe's report, Dr. Fort indicated she voted no because she wanted to find out more about the range of costs for the fiber network.

From the KOAM report:

However, the former Memorial school building is in need of some modifications.

"It was built as a school, with large classrooms that will have to divided up with some walls and office space for confidentiality purposes," said CJ Huff, superintendent of Joplin Schools.

The total budget for the project is up to $325,000, with $150,000 for building modifications, $125,000 for technical installations, and an additional $50,000 for moving expenses.

Officials are hopeful the costs will not be as high as projected.

"A lot of the estimates we have are just that, estimates," Huff said. "Best guesses as to what it will cost to do various parts of the project."

Huff says a portion of the funding will come from this year's budget allocation for capital improvement projects.

"As it stands right now, it looks like we're going to have about $20,000 left over in this year's budget that we'll be able to apply to the construction project," he said.

The remaining funds will come from the district's general operating budget.


KOAM TV 7

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is only money - nothing to worry about. We can just go out back and pick some more off the tree. Thank you Dr. Fort for, once again, standing up and asking questions.

Anonymous said...

The actual cost will probably be double the amount budgeted.

On top of building modifications, technical installations, and moving costs, they will need new furniture because that "old" stuff they just bought for the MODOT building won't do.

C.J. will probably need to hire someone (overpaid and under-qualified) to oversee this project. It might also require an architect to ensure it is aesthetically pleasing (to C.J.) and maintains the 21st century look and feel (garish) of the other new buildings in the district.

Since it is a rather large building, C.J. will be forced to create additional highly paid, but unnecessary, administrators to fill the additional space they don't won't be using.

With all these additional expenses, they "might as well" tear down that old historical building and construct a new one.

Anonymous said...

Why do they have to run fiber optics in the building. Didn't it serve as the 9-10 campus for two years. All the students had access to WiFi to be able to read their textbooks.
Yes, $50,000 might seem like a small amount to question but we need to stay on budget. Saying any money left over we will give back is the same thing they said about the school bond. How much did they give back?? Oh yes, they borrowed $8million more to finish it and repay a total of $12million.

Anonymous said...

7:34
We already have someone overpaid and under-qualified to oversee the project. He oversees all the projects. It's the very reason they all fail. Mike Johnson-CJ's pet monkey!

Anonymous said...

I wish CJ would get facts instead of guessing, he is not so good at that.

Anonymous said...

All for the kids!

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know how much it cost when we moved people around for the new middle schools before the tornado?

Anonymous said...

Why does everything have to be perfect for CJ Why can't he learn to make do with what he has. I am not free to waste my hard earned money. Why does he waste my tax dollars. Accountability , scrutiny, frugality, get your laptop out and Google it