In a hard-fought referendum effort last November, residents of the Westonka school district approved two maintenance bonds that paved the way to accomplishing some long-awaited improvements to our schools.

So now what? 

You’ll see some construction activity going on at our school buildings currently, as folks from Kraus-Anderson and Wold Architects/Engineers tackle some of the least disruptive projects on their long list. But most of what’s happening this summer involves extensive planning of the major renovation work to come in the summers of 2013 and ’14. 

Included in the improvement plans for Summer 2013 is one of the most talked about building projects – replacing the ancient boiler in the basement of Shirley Hills Elementary with a new system housed in an addition above ground. 

I asked Chad Rettke from Kraus-Anderson and Paul Aplikowski from Wold to go on camera to help people understand just exactly what’s on tap for our school buildings this summer and beyond.

I’ll be providing more updates and video footage as construction progresses.