Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
$4.69 million Oberon Elementary School nears completion
This photo of the new elementary school under construction in Oberon also shows the current brick schoolhouse, built in 1920, in the background.
Chart prepared by Amy Wobbema using data from the N.D. Department of Public Instruction, https://www.nd.gov/dpi/
The backside of the new school, which shows the classroom wing (white)
A view inside an unfinished classroom at the new school
The fire suppression system in the new school features a 15,666 gallon water tank.
A classroom in Oberon's current brick schoolhouse
The gymnasium in the current school is also used as a cafeteria, as will the gymnasium in the new school.
The main floor hallway of the Oberon School, where senior class composites from past years line the walls. According to Brown, the last class to graduate from Oberon School was in 1972.
The new school is made of all steel trusses and studs, and has modern LED light fixtures throughout. This is a view of the ceiling inside the main entrance/administrative office area, where workers were installing lighting this past week.
Students and staff at Oberon Elementary School will come back to school in a new space on Aug. 25. The new 18,000 sq. ft. school under construction on the north end of Oberon will replace the town's 100-year-old brick tri-level schoolhouse.
Groundbreaking took place in Oct. 2020, and workers managed to pour the concrete in late November. It wasn't until January, however, that the steel trusses and studs arrived on site, a full 60 days later than scheduled, due to pandemic supply issues. Now, just seven months into construction, interior finish work is well underway. Jordan Brown, Oberon superintendent/principal, and Colt Chauvin, site superintendent for Consolidated Construction Company of Bismarck (the general contractor) gave us a tour on Tuesday, July 13.
The administrative offices are right up front, near the main entrance. The new 7,000 sq. ft. gymnasium will double as a cafeteria during the school day, with its adjacent kitchen convenient for serving breakfast and lunch.
The classrooms are quite spacious in comparison to the ones in the current school building, and they have more efficient storage to boot. Lake Region Painting of Devils Lake, one of the area subcontractors working on the project, is nearly finished.
The ceramic wall tile in the bathrooms was purchased from and installed by Tom's Home Furnishings of Harvey. The spacious pair of restrooms in the classroom wing are adjacent to one another, designed similar to shopping center restrooms, with open entrances facing each other. The new space will be significantly more energy efficient as well, with LED lighting throughout and a high-efficiency forced-air heating system.
The budget for the structure was $4.69 million, which is equal to the amount of Impact Aid the school district was awarded to build it. "We're trying to keep the cost as close to that as possible," Brown said. Impact Aid is a federal education program that reimburses school districts for the lost revenue, and additional costs, associated with the presence of nontaxable federal property. Oberon qualified for the aid because part of the district is located within the Spirit Lake Reservation, where much of the land is nontaxable.
They obtained a separate grant from USDA Rural Development for the fire suppression system, which features a 15,666 gallon water tank to ensure proper water supply and pressure in the event of a fire.
There are two things, however, that didn't fit into the budget, Brown said: air conditioning inside, and a new playground outside. He is hopeful that they will find a way to fund both in the near future.
Oberon Elementary School has served an average of 56 students in grades K-6 per year for the past 10 years, based on data from the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. Enrollment will be open to seventh graders as well this fall, and Brown would like to see the number increase as a result. The students were able to get a sneak peek at the "bones" of the construction project this past spring. "We are excited to see the staff and students using their new space," Chauvin said.
July 1 marked the beginning of Brown's second year as administrator. He came on board last July, and his first task was securing an extension for the federal Impact Aid after legal action taken against four board members delayed construction. Throughout the year he has overseen the construction efforts, something not many first-year administrators get the opportunity to do.
"It's all downhill from here," Brown joked. He's actually looking onward and upward, to a routine school year in a space where students will be safe and comfortable to learn.
For anyone out there looking for an opportunity to work in a brand new school, Brown said there are still a few openings on his staff. The district seeks a third grade teacher, bus driver and custodian. "We have great teachers on staff," Brown said.
The school board has not discussed what to do with the current school once it is vacated, Brown said. The beautiful brick structure is sound, but would need a lot of TLC to bring it back to its former glory. Nonetheless, it's a piece of Oberon history that houses a multitude of memories for former students and community members. The school's mascot, the Bulldog, is painted on one wall of the gymnasium, near the vintage scoreboard that Brown said "worked last summer," but hasn't been turned on since, opposite the three rows of stationary wooden bleachers that at one time were filled with spectators. Two boilers stamped "Kewanee Boiler Co., 1921, Kewanee, Ill.," that heated the building for many years still remain in the mechanical room.
See interior photos of both the current and the new school below. When the new school is officially open, we plan to go back to Oberon and provide more coverage of the first days of class.
