The Plum School Board moved forward with an extensive renovation and addition process at two district schools during a special meeting Wednesday night.

The board heard a presentation from Robinson-based HDG Architects with updates on project bids at Plum Middle School and planning progress on a large addition project at O’Block Elementary School.

The presentation was the latest advance in a $30 million, multiyear building project in the district.

Randy Hunter, an architect at HDG, said the company had received bids totaling a little over $1.5 million on the first two projects at Plum Middle School, which include HVAC controls in addition to a dust collector and mechanical equipment project.

Though the company is still waiting on bids on the final two middle school projects, which include exterior door, window and courtyard work, Hunter said work at the middle school was more than $640,000 under budget.

Though it was listed under potential future projects, board member Michelle Stepnick called the middle school track “a danger” and repeatedly insisted that the board and architects make a move to fix it soon.

“We need to look at that track, and it needs fixed,” she said. “That needs to happen, and it needs to happen now.”

Other directors, including Lindsay Arenth and Renee Richardson, echoed that sentiment, but it‘s unclear how or if that repair will proceed.

O’Block work

As for O’Block, Hunter offered detailed plans and renderings of what the elementary school’s addition and renovations might look like.

According to the presentation, the school likely will see a reorganized floor plan with new classroom wings, new special education classrooms, dedicated sensory spaces, dedicated space for music and band, and updated interior finishes throughout the building, among several other improvements.

On the outside, O’Block will get a new front entrance canopy, a new roof, a new ADA-compliant playground and play area, a parent drop-off loop and several other updates.

That’s all in addition to improvements in the guts of the building, such as a new fire protection and alarm system and updated HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems.

While creating the designs, Hunter said, HDG strove to make a “creative, fun” building that reflected an elementary school environment.

Though Stepnick disputed the necessity of certain aesthetic elements of the design, such as faux wooden ceiling accents, she called the renderings “beautiful.”

Work at the middle school is expected to begin on the first day of summer break and be largely complete by October.

But the much more extensive work at O’Block will likely last until 2027.

The board gave permission for the architects to move forward into the construction document phase of the process. Discussions about specific design choices and projects will continue into coming meetings.

The board will officially vote to proceed with the project at its April 22 meeting.