T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM — Tim Turis with Invision Architecture shows the Marshalltown Community School District Board of Education some updates on the Reimagine Miller project. Next to him, Michael Martin with Boyd Jones broke down a detailed timeline of the project during the regular Monday meeting.

A more detailed timeline of the Reimagine Miller project was given to the Marshalltown Community School District Board of Education during the regular Monday meeting.

Boyd Jones Senior Project Manager Michael Martin said the team has worked on assembling the project to make it work during the next several years. The estimated completion is August 2029, right before the beginning of the school year.

“This is a timeline showing you how we get from the starting point to the end point to achieve Reimagine Miller,” he said.

There are eight phases and timeframes:

• Phase 1 will run from April 2026 to April 2027 and will focus on the auxiliary gym, commons and the kitchen addition;

• Phase 2, June 2026 to August 2026, elevators, courtyard and southwest parking lot and the academic addition;

• Phase 3, April 2027 to June 2028, the academic wing which is split into two phases. The new build will go on the south side;

• Phase 4, June 2027 to August 2027, north basement area, refreshing classrooms in the 2005 wing;

• Phase 5, January 2028 to November 2028, student success center, library and basement auxiliary classrooms;

• Phase 6, June 2028 to August 2028, completion student success center, retrofitting north classrooms in the wing;

• Phase 7, November 2028 to July 2029, band and orchestra areas, fitness center, multipurpose room and the construction crew will begin working their way off of the campus;

• Phase 8, April 2029 to August 2029.

Martin noted that the short phases, such as Phase 2, Phase 4, Phase 6 and Phase 8, take place during the summer months.

“There’s going to be times when we have to get stuff done in that small window,” he said.

During Phase 1, Martin said they will keep the main entrance open on the east side until school is out, as requested by the principals.

One goal of the team is to add classrooms as they move through the project.

“Each floor we touch, we lose roughly three classrooms per area, so we got to add space,” he said.

Martin told the board members there were a lot of meetings about Reimagine Miller phasing. It was considered working on different areas first, but the kitchen is critical.

“For us to take the area, we would have to give you guys a new kitchen, which is where the commons area on the northeast side comes into play,” he said. “Then also, we have to add new classrooms with the learning addition.”

Martin said big issues which were identified include traffic management, and they are working on the logistics of how to work that out, such as bus arrival and student drop off. Developing a drainage strategy was also important and they are working with a third party to mitigate that, he said. Site cleanliness is important so there will be regular street sweeping and no debris overflow. There will be regular communication with neighbors through signage and flyers, and a focus on establishing a prompt resolution system for neighbor concerns. Separation and security is huge, Martin said.

“As we work through, there will be places that we wall off, create temporary accesses and every single contractor will be going through background checks to get on board,” he said.

Also speaking about the project was Invision Architect Tim Turis, who presented a few updates on the project design. Superintendent Theron Schutte asked him to explain the addition of $315,144 to the design cost.

In his presentation, he included “Amendment 3,” which is a finalization of the architectural fee services.

“Originally, we were basing our fees off of a cost estimate, and so that cost estimate, those dollars were identified very early in the project, had a lot of contingencies,” Turis said. “As we worked through the project, we honed in on what the actual cost of the construction is. So, our fee is based off of the percentage of that construction cost. As we think about Boyd Jones putting the cost estimate together, that percentage fee was established early in the project, but that target number has been adjusted. That number actually went up, so that means our fees were going up with that, as well.”

He noted that the fee does not just represent architectural services, but all of the design consultants, mechanical, plumbing, civil and electrical engineers are represented in the cost.

Board member Leah Stanley asked if that fee would increase if the overall cost project changes. Turis told her it would not as it was established early in the agreement process the fee would be finalized at the end of the development phase.

“That design development phase, the cost estimate that Boyd Jones put together a few months ago now, that’s the line in the sand. We will not be adjusting from there,” he said.

Martin said the goal is to be prepared as much as possible. Invision is wrapping up drawings, Boyd Jones are identifying construction and phasing areas.

“Our goal is to give you guys a great space at the end, but it will be intrusive throughout that process,” he said. “We will try to mitigate that as much as possible, but we will be working right up against 85 to 90 percent of the walls of the school.”

Board President Sean Heitmann said there has clearly been a lot of time and thought spent on the entirety of Reimagine Miller.

“How do you turn a construction site into a school, but also still be a school, right?” he said. “There’s a lot of excitement, but a lot of nervousness, too with noise and all that stuff. Clearly a lot of time and thought has gone into this plan.”

Stanley asked Martin and Turis how the project compares to others they have worked on. Turis said it has been one of the most challenging.

“You saw how many phases Boyd Jones has put together just to get through the building and keep it operational,” he said. “That’s probably the challenging part – the logistics.”

——

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.