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NILES CHARTER TOWNSHIP — Work is moving forward on two more of the projects being funded by the $22 million bond issue approved by Brandywine school district voters in 2024.

Brandywine Board of Education members voted to accept bids for the gymnasium addition at Merritt Elementary School as well as the new Career Technical Education center at the Middle/High School. Work on those two projects is expected to start next spring at the earliest.

      Superintendent Travis Walker said the Merritt bid came in at around $1.5 million with work in a number of categories with different contractors. The CTE bid was just for the pre-engineered metal building with Pioneer Construction the winning bidder with a bid of $1.566 million.

      Walker said that while the actual work won’t start until the spring/summer period, the district wanted to secure contractors now and start getting materials so there are no delays when construction begins.

      He said that while the bids may have been slightly higher than they anticipated, they were fairly close to what had been expected. He said the main difference came from what officials know now versus the knowledge they had during the pre-bond work.

      A couple of bond projects have already completed, including securing entrances at three district school buildings and resurfacing the high school track.

      As district officials noted at the time the bond issue passed in May, 2024, projects are being done in phases over three years and not all at once. One of the big projects still to be bid out is the construction of a new performing arts center at the high school.

      At Monday’s board meeting, Walker, board members and Christman Construction representative Todd Champion discussed the details of the CTE and Merritt bids accepted during Monday’s meeting and what that could mean for the other projects still left to do.

      Board secretary Holly Pomranka was the first to ask about the bids for the two projects being overbudget. She noted that the CTE center, the Merritt addition and the performing arts center were the main projects people wanted to see happen with the bond issue. “How are we going to make sure we do an adequate job on these buildings,” she asked.

      Walker said that he thinks there are ways to bring down the budget for the CTE building and save some money. Champion added that the bid being approved Monday was for the main structure only and that design work for the rest of the building isn’t completed yet.

      Walker agreed with Pomranka that the CTE, Merritt and performing arts center are the three most important bond projects and he will make sure those three are done properly even if money has to be drawn away from other bond projects such as parking lot work. He noted that they also want to have the funds needed to repurpose the current CTE space.

      In other business at Monday’s meeting, Walker reported on current and upcoming events. He said that October is National Principals Month and that Oct. 2 was Custodians Day. He said district officials are still working on and gathering information on the “Portrait of the Graduate” project and will report back to the board in January.

      He reminded board members that the district’s annual Veterans Day program will be Nov. 11 at 9:30 a.m. at the Brandywine Athletic Community Center  at Brandywine High School.