Board approves NBE building contract

by Jason Futch
Published 4/22/26

The North Bend Central Board of Education met for its regular monthly meeting on April 13. During the meeting, the board approved a building contract with a Lincoln-based contractor that will assist in building the addition at the elementary school.

During the discussion to approve the contract with Clark & Enersen, architecture director Tim Ripp addressed the board, sharing details about updates the firm made to its designs on the addition.

While sharing images of the floor plan with the board, he said the floor plan was 6,036 square feet of addition, which would grow the elementary school by six classrooms, three support rooms, restroom grouping, as well and a storage room. Ripp added the corridor would be hardened space for a tornado shelter. The building would stay with the standard block and brick construction, along with a variable refrigerant flow mechanical system similar to what was installed in the school 10 years ago.

He said the floor would be laid with vinyl tile and carpet tile, while the restroom would have porcelain ceramic tile flooring.

While the current floor plan is just over 6,000 square feet, a planned addition of another 2,860 was also included to inform the board what a future addition would look like.

Ripp then continued to provide additional information about the floor plans, including precast roof structures, restroom inclusions and interior elevations of the classrooms itself. Ripp said the work would be consistent with previous renovations the firm had made in previous elementary schools. He also said the windows on the west side of the addition would be facing the baseball field, but concluded it not be an issue, as those windows are part of the storm shelter and would be thicker and hardened.

When it came to the elevation of the school, he said the firm is trying to match the existing building as much as possible.

Board president Doug Hoops asked Ripp about whether any concerns about the floodplain had been addressed. Ripp said that it had been addressed but added that the state statutes do not require an addition of the planned size to be flood-proofed unless construction exceeds 50% of the value of the entire building. When talking about the flood of 2019, Ripp said that water had lapped at the front door. With the current plan, the addition would have flood protection with the walls except for the vestibule door.

“Even if you did have a flood,” Ripp said, “you could probably sandbag one door, but you also have eight other door locations on the east wing of the building you would have to be doing the same thing to.”

Ripp added that if the school board wasn’t comfortable with the current plan addressing flooding, the firm could reverse course and add a ramp that could get the vestibule out of the floodplain, but based on discussion, he said it was not a concern at the moment.

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