GRAND FORKS – Work on Grand Forks Public Schools’ new districtwide kitchen is set to wrap up early next year, with two other construction projects set to wrap up before the end of the school year.
Building and Grounds Manager Jonathan Ellwein said the district hasn’t set a hard date for when kitchen staff will move from their current space at Valley Middle School to the newly built-out Central Kitchen at the Mark Sanford Education Center, but they planned to finish moving by mid-January.
“It’s going to be a bit of a process,” Ellwein said Friday. “We’ll actually move over the physical kitchen staff first, and they’ll start doing the cooking. And once we get that going, we’ll move over the office staff.”
The kitchen will be the first major construction project paid for by the $79 million referendum approved by voters in May 2023.
The next project slated for completion is security upgrades to Red River High School’s main entrance.
That project relocates the main office from the center of the building to the main doors, so that individuals entering the school outside normal hours will have to pass through the school’s vestibule and then the main office.
The Red River upgrades are being paid for as part of the $18 million in safety and security upgrades included in the $79 million referendum; the project is anticipated to wrap up in early- to mid-March.
Ellwein said he’s still waiting for bid results to come back in January or February, but that the district is planning to start work on safety and security upgrades on Winship and Lewis and Clark elementary schools in the spring.
He said the district was hoping to start that work earlier so as not to run into a time crunch when the ground freezes again late next year.
“The earlier we can get in there, the more comfortable we are, because you find most of your surprises when you’re doing the dirt work,” Ellwein said.
Contractors are also finishing up construction drawings for upgrades to Lake Agassiz, Kelly and Wilder elementaries and Schroeder Middle School, and the district is determining which of those projects can happen in the summer.
“We can’t realistically take down all those elementary schools for the summer because then we can’t have summer school.” Ellwein said. “We’re trying to figure out operationally what we can do, and if there are some projects where you could have summer school and still maintain construction.”
At the Career Impact Academy, contractors are working on interior finishes and wrapping up mechanical work with plans for “substantial completion” by mid-April.
Executive Director for CTE and Technology Eric Ripley said the district had tentative plans for a ribbon-cutting and open house for the new career and technical education center in the fall.
The new Valley Middle School is still on track to open in January 2026. Last week, the district’s finance committee approved a change order adding a wall of alternating glass panels and Sheetrock to a mezzanine overlooking the new school’s cafeteria and auditorium.
Ellwein said the mezzanine had originally had an all-glass enclosure but that was taken out due to cost concerns in favor of a railing.
Administrators and contractors shifted back toward favoring an enclosed mezzanine after the Valley project came in under budget concerns were raised about middle school students throwing things from the mezzanine.
The change order is not expected to substantively impact the new middle school’s opening date.