March 19, 2024

NCSD to house multiple departments in centerpiece facility

Building will have first-class meeting space

Where parents once made decisions about fresh produce, they will soon be able to hear decisions made about the future of the Newton Community School District.

The district’s new administration building on First Avenue West, the former Hy-Vee West grocery store, is taking shape as it is remodeled in anticipation of being used this summer. Workers recently completed the majority of the framing work, and a great deal of the electrical work. Now crews have begun hanging sheetrock along interior walls.

Superintendent Bob Callaghan recently took the Newton Daily News inside the facility on a regular work day to see not only the progress being made and what the building will look like, but also how many construction workers are inside working on different elements of the 20,000-square foot building.

The district purchased the building in October 2014 after Callaghan had been directed by the board to find an affordable, suitable facility. A design firm’s estimate was that building a brand-new similar building from the ground up would cost about twice as much, or $4 million compared to the approximately $2 million being spent to remodel the former structure.

The foundation was deemed solid, along with the exterior walls and roof joists, but everything else — from a sewage trench to the plumbing to the roof — has been replaced, and even the parking lot will be new once the building is completed.

Callaghan said progress is on schedule, and the district should be able to begin moving its administration offices and Basics & Beyond and disciplinary programs into the building in the very late spring or early summer.

The building won’t be set up anything like the grocery store was, with a few exceptions. Visitors will see Cardinal red and black around the exterior, and will enter into a front hallway at the southeast corner.

The front hall will open into a lobby area. To the right will be the largest single room in the building — a three-part, sectionable board room that will be used for everything from NCSD board meetings to professional-development classes and seminars to use by non-school groups or clubs.

The board room is about 2,420 total square feet, and has two divider walls that can be pulled out. The room can be split by both walls to create a small center section and two larger ones on each end for multiple classes — with each one having at least one large LED screen — or one divider can be used to create a sort of 60-40 split for meetings.

It is anticipated the NCSD will hold its regular meetings in the board room beginning some time this year. Technology should allow for a live local-cable broadcast of meetings.

A central hallway runs north and south through the building, with a slight jog amid the administration offices. At the back corner of the board room is a reception area that is set to include an electronic message board about upcoming events, along with a reception desk.

On the west side of the reception area are the superintendent’s and human resource director’s offices — both of which open into a common conference room. Callaghan showed the sound baffling that is being installed between offices to create more secure conversations — especially ones that, by law, must take place in private.

Several other offices — accounts payable and payroll, business services, curriculum and instruction, the registrar among them — are located on a hall that runs east of the reception area. Storage areas, a work room and a small conference room are also along the hallway.

Callaghan pointed out cabling trays that were installed before the ceiling or wall work was completed, carrying the building’s vast array of cables over the top of hallways and offices.

At the back of the administration offices is a door leading to the Basics & Beyond area, which will feature three classrooms and restrooms all opening into a commons, with a short hallway leading toward the east wall. That hallway will include the pottery kiln room, science classroom, another classroom, the two connectable Disciplinary Alternative Program rooms (380 and 591 square feet, combinable by pulling back a divider), a computer room and a fitness room.

Callaghan showed the 410-square-foot fitness room to assistant head custodian Larry Wylie, who wanted to see the layout of the space. Callaghan pointed out it was one of the few spaces in the remodeled building that wouldn’t have a lowered ceiling so that a number of athletic or fitness-related activities can take place there.

Each of the four regular Basics & Beyond classrooms are either 600 square feet or slightly smaller and have areas to store wireless devices.

A counseling office, main Basics & Beyond office and a reception office are at the north end, along with several storage areas. Crews built onto the back of the building to accommodate the storage areas, a doorway vestibule and the associated entry area.

Not only will the building instantly become the first district building completely remodeled with the high speed Internet in mind, but it will also be the first NCSD facility designed in the ADA-compliance era. All entry and exit points and regular-use areas will be handicapped accessible.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com