Tipp City school renovations begin today; L.T. Ball adding classes for this fall

Changes to intermediate school on North Hyatt Street are part of larger districtwide school facilities plan
A contract has been approved for renovations to Tipp City's L.T. Ball Intermediate School during summer 2024. CONTRIBUTED.

Credit: HANDOUT

Credit: HANDOUT

A contract has been approved for renovations to Tipp City's L.T. Ball Intermediate School during summer 2024. CONTRIBUTED.

TIPP CITY — The Tipp City Exempted Village Schools Board of Education awarded a contract for renovations to the L.T. Ball Intermediate School to accommodate the move of district third graders from Broadway Elementary School due to the district’s new building construction project.

Broadway third-grade classes will join the fourth and fifth grades already housed at L.T. Ball on North Hyatt Street. The move will allow the district to house kindergarten and first graders at Broadway, along with the second graders previously housed here.

The changes are being made due to the planned demolition of Nevin Coppock Elementary School. The demolition is part of the district construction project that includes a new preschool through eighth grade building on the North Hyatt Street site where Nevin Coppock is located. The school was closed at the end of the 2023-24 school year.

The school board on July 8 approved a renovation bid of $201,635 from True United Contractors. The planned work is intended to provide additional classroom space in the L.T. Ball building, said district Treasurer Dave Stevens. Work was scheduled to begin today and be completed before school starts in August.

This was the second time the district sought bids on the project. The first bids all were higher than expected at more than 20 percent over the architects’ estimate. Those bids were rejected, and the project was rebid.

“Some vendors weren’t able to bid because they couldn’t get an electric contractor to work with them,” Stevens said. “The architects reworked the project documents to have electrical as a separate component in case we needed to have it done separately. Luckily however, the winner of the second round of bids was able to do everything.”

The work will include adding five classrooms; enclosing technical and electrical closets; demolishing select interior modular walls, ceilings and finishes; and constructing new walls, ceilings, doors and interior finishes.

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