Prairie du Chien School District’s remodel of the Bluff View Intermediate building now has an official price tag: $676,760. The cost is in line with previous estimates from the architectural firm HSR Associates.

Work on the building will include the construction or renovation of five bathrooms, remodeling areas for the younger students and the removal of lockers and cabinets, among other alterations.

The district received the bid results on Thursday, June 18, and the Board of Education reviewed the bid from Wieser Brothers (general contractor on the project) the next morning.

Tim Ruppert, an architect and the principal director of the HSR Board of Directors, said the project received multiple competitive bids. “This time of year, this kind of bid, for this kind of quick start like this, we did get coverage; however, we didn’t get a lot of bid coverage.”

The base bid, which included work on the bathrooms, HVAC and other construction, accounted for $559,940. The board chose to accept two alternate bids: one for the removal of lockers and installation of coat hooks in the hallways ($43,220) and another for the installation of overhead doors and a library partition ($73,510).

Bid alternates are a way for a proposal to add or remove work from the project after the bidding is completed.

The board moved to accept the baseline and both bid alternates. One of the reasons for tackling the entire project now was that the construction crews were already on location.

The remodel of the Bluff View Intermediate School Building is scheduled to take place over the summer, with a completion date before the start of the 2026–27 school year. Construction work has reportedly already begun. Banasik said Wieser Brothers needed work to begin to have the project done by Sept. 1.

Ruppert said there may be some minor work to be done after Sept. 1, but it wouldn’t impede students and faculty from using the space.

Unlike the county jail or the city’s public safety building, the school is not borrowing money for the project, nor is it using any money from its operating referendum.

The district managed to pass a three-year non-recurring operating referendum this past fall. The money cannot be used for construction purposes. Referendum money is being used to pay staff costs (salaries, insurance, etc.) and infrastructural needs (e.g. new servers)pertaining to the district’s everyday operations.

“This is not paid for by our operating referendum,” said District Administrator Andy Banasik. “We’re using the money from the house sales, from our fund balance and spend down we have this year.”

Earlier this year, the district sold two residential properties for a total of approximately $350,000.

Banasik said the “spend down” money is funds reallocated from expenses the district cut out of the budget, such as $60,000 for the purchase of a van.

“This is all money we already have — we’re not borrowing any money. This is fund balance money we saved over the past 20 years, money from the houses and we made some cuts from the budget to help pay to get this completed,” he said.

In attendance were board members Nick Gilberts, Noah White, Lacie Anthony, Justin Campbell, Dustin Brewer and Michael Higgins, Jr. Kyle Maahs was absent. Banasik was also present.

McKenna Dutton, Physical Education and Health teacher.

Teresa Yesquen, B.A. Kennedy teacher’s assistant, and Kelly Hamann, B.A. Kennedy teacher’s aide.