Members of the Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education will meet in a Special Session Thursday evening beginning at 6,  in the High School Media Center. The only item on their agenda, is approval of the district’s proposed Capital Improvement Projects. The Board discussed those projects during their regular meeting on Monday. The combined project cost amounts to roughly $9.5-million dollars.

Atlantic Superintendent Dr. Mike Amstein says that includes $1.6-million dollars in work on the Washington Elementary School. The proposal incorporates 4 new classrooms on the northeast wing, a small cafeteria on the side of the gym, and an access road primarily for buses that should alleviate traffic congestion in front of the building. The access road adds about $220,000 to the cost at Washington.

Proposed work on the Schuler Elementary School includes $3.8-million for the construction of 12 more classrooms, which will result in moving some third grade students at the Washington School over to the new addition at Schuler, as well as any overflow students at Schuler itself. The Middle School would get a new commons area under the proposed Capital Improvements Plan, at a cost of about $1-million. It would be situated in what is now the courtyard area between the auditorium and the gymnasium. And it would be similar to what is currently in place at the Atlantic High School.

As for the Atlantic High School, Amstein says the proposal includes the addition of seven new classrooms on the west end of the building, and expanding the art room, at a cost of about $2.9-million. In addition, the Board is looking at replacing all the heat pumps that the high school, but that is not included in the CIP. The pumps, which have been in-place for about 18-years, have reached the end of their life expectancy.

Amstein says the good news out of all this is that they can borrow money for the projects while the time is still right as far as the interest rates is concerned. He says interest rates are at record lows and are expected to continue to decline. And, the High School will come off of Debt Service at the end of May. The projects he says should serve the district’s needs for at least the next 10-years. If the projects are approved during Thursday evening’s meeting, the next steps include project development and design (the board has only seen preliminary drawings thus far).