Superintendenet Ken Crawford

The Highland school board set public hearings on the two projects that will be funded with the $3.7 million bond issue approved by voters last year.

The public hearings will be Feb. 10, the same day that the school board will vote on selling the bonds.

“We are knee deep in construction work,” Superintendent Ken Crawford told the board at its meeting Monday evening. “It’s going fast.”

Bids on the projects – replacement of the heating and air conditioning system at the high school and renovating the elementary school playground – will be opened on Jan. 28.

The district already held a pre-bid meeting with contractors to discuss the high school work, which includes building renovations in addition to the air conditioning.

Contractors will submit an alternate bid for replacing windows throughout the school. That piece of the project is optional in case bids come in higher than anticipated. The district cannot spend more than the $3.7 million approved by voters on the projects.

A pre-bid meeting for the playground piece of the bond project will be held Jan. 21 at the elementary school.

Feb. 10 will be a busy day in the Highland district. That morning, the district will “sell” the bonds.

At 5:30 p.m., the board will hold a public hearing to give district residents an opportunity to comment on the high school projects.

At 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 10, a public hearing will be held on the elementary playground piece of the project.

Following the public hearings, the board will vote to accept the bids and approve the sale of the bonds. According to district Business Manager Sue Rich, the board could reject the bids and the sale of the bonds. If board members did that, the bidding process would start over.

Rich said the bonds would not be issued until later in February and the district would not receive money from the bond sale until March.