NILES – Brandywine school district officials are gearing up for the start of construction for some of the projects being funded by the $22 million bond issue voters approved nearly a year ago.

         Superintendent Travis Walker gave a brief update about the bond issue at the school board’s Feb. 10 meeting. He reported that construction on the first phase of projects should start in June.

Walker and other officials had said earlier that work will be done in two phases with sets of bonds sold to fund the work. He estimated that it will likely be about five years before all the projects are completed.

         One of the projects scheduled to be done is the expansion of the Career Technical Education Center at the middle/high school. The design deadline for the CTE Center is July 4 and plans call for the center to ready for use for the 2026-27 school year.

         Walker said that the expansion of the CTE Center will not allow the district to offer more programs but will allow it to grow the programs already available. He said that means that more students will be able to take the CTE classes Brandywine offers because of the additional space.

         The CTE Center expansion is estimated to cost between $6.5 and $6.75 million with the renovation of the existing CTE space another $650,000. The district’s CTE offerings include manufacturing, auto shop, CNC and machining and cabinet/millwork prorams.

         Other projects that will be completed thanks to the bond issue approved last spring include a gym addition at Merritt Elementary costing as much as $1.7 million, a new performing arts center at middle/high school costing $9.5 million, and secure entrances at all three school buildings costing $275,000 each.

         Other middle/high school improvements such as a new baseball field, parking lot improvements and the track resurfacing which will total as much as $2.55 million to do.

         The board’s Feb. 10 meeting also featured discussion on other items such as new student government and volunteer policies and selecting a student representative to be on the school board.

Board members voted last month to have a student representative on the board to give them that new perspective. The students will be able to attend meetings but not vote or take part in closed sessions.

The board’s next meeting will be Feb. 24. Meetings are now at the Brandywine Innovation Academy Conference Room after a year or more of meetings being hosted in the Middle/Senior High School Media Center and being available for viewing on YouTube.