Bobbi Hepper Olson of Hepper Olson Architects talks to the Valley City School Board on Monday about the Jefferson Elementary project. (Jean Schlegel/VCTR) 

By Jean Schlegel
Valley City Times-Record

An addition to Jefferson Elementary School in Valley City will cost about $750,000, Valley City School District Superintendent Dean Koppelman said at the Monday School Board meeting.
The project initially was estimated to cost about $250,000 to $300,000.
The project will get funding from either nearly $1 million in federal stimulus package money or a loan.
The project at the school – which will add a library, computer lab, classroom and music room – has grown since its inception last winter.
Bobbi Hepper Olson of Hepper Olson Architects in Buxton, N.D., was hired to work with Valley City architect Dan Smith. Smith, who’s been working on the project from the start, said in June since he’s a one-man
office, he cannot work alone.
Three Fargo-Moorhead engineers who have served as project consultants attended the meeting. The consultants are structural, mechanical and electrical engineers.
Smith said he believes this is the final plan and the project is now down to minor changes.
Hepper Olson said the $750,000 cost comes by taking $125 times the 6,000 square feet of the proposed addition. Firmer figures of the cost will be given at the July 15 board meeting, she said.
School Board President Sharon Buhr said the board hopes for a late September groundbreaking and students will use the addition starting in fall 2010.
Koppelman said in June the school district will get about $1 million in federal stimulus money, which will arrive in the fall.
If the school takes out a loan to pay for the Jefferson addition, it will do so through a building fund levy bond, a financing method that schools use by loaning money from the Bank of North Dakota or a local bank.
The board has not yet decided which method they’ll use to pay for the project.
Also Monday, Smith gave the board an update of the roofing project at Jefferson. He said roofers have a good start and if the weather holds, they could be done in two to three weeks.
The board will meet again at 5 p.m. July 15 at the school district’s Administration Building.