RALSTON, NEB. (KMTV) – Ralston schools is renting out classroom spaces through Westside while it continues renovations on elementary schools, now the school is over a year ahead in the project
- Ralston Public Schools partnered with Westside to keep students in classrooms while construction continues
- The partnership saved the school money in construction costs and put the project ahead by over a year
- "The relationship has been tremendous for us, and we are so thankful that Westside has partnered with us. It has allowed us to accelerate our construction schedule,” Jason Buckingham, superintendent of Ralston Public Schools said.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
A partnership between two schools that saved time and money.
Ralston Public Schools are still under construction but a partnership with Westside is keeping students in the classroom without stopping renovations.
Ralston schools started the project of renovating its buildings in 2021.
Jason Buckingham, superintendent of Ralston Public Schools wanted to make kids could go to school in a quiet learning environment but still have construction continue during the school year.
And he managed to find a way to continue renovations without the students or construction teams having any interruptions through a partnership with Westside.
"I think it has been a great relationship for both entities,” Buckingham said.
Ralston Public Schools is renting out spaces from Westside to use as classrooms for their elementary students while it finishes the renovations to elementary schools.
A plan that, according to Buckingham, has helped the school finish construction faster than expected.
"The relationship has been tremendous for us, and we are so thankful that Westside has partnered with us. It has allowed us to accelerate our construction schedule,” he said. “We are actually a year and half to two years ahead of where we thought we would be."
The school has already finished construction on five elementary schools. Not only did the school save time through this partnership, but it also helped cut costs.
"We were able to reduce our construction costs significantly, the rent of this place pale in comparison to the amount of money we saved on our contractors," Buckingham said.
Before this, the school planned to finish construction between two summers or have contractors come during after school hours which Buckingham said would made the projects a lot more expensive.
"Imagine having to do part of the job, leaving the site then comeback a couple months later. We were able streamline that, cut down our construction time we had and as a result we ended up with much better bid from of our contractor," he said.
The school saved $85,000 on construction costs to its first building and now the school is finishing up construction on its last building, Seymour Elementary.
Those students are currently taking classes at Westside Community Center, but the school is preparing to move them back into their building soon.
"It's exactly what we needed at the exact right time and not only saved us money but also gave them money too for a facility that would have sat empty,” Buckingham said.
Seymour Elementary students are expected to be back in their classrooms by October 1.
