Lincoln County District #2 superintendent, Matt Erickson, says in this last legislative session it received final budget approval for expansion projects for Afton and Osmond Elementary.

He says this has been in the works a little over three years.

“We’re now to the point, we just finished up with Afton Elementary…60% design and planning,” Erickson said. “And we’re at about the 95% design and plan with Osmond Elementary.”

He says it anticipates being able to go to bid on a three classroom expansion for Osmond in the next few weeks. The plan is also to add eight classrooms in Afton and going to bid in the next five weeks or so.

He also says they are hoping to get construction started in the next calendar year, but that is still up in the air.

“With the construction climate the way it is right now due to the economy and supply availability and how busy contractors are,” Erickson said. “We anticipate that we’re going to have to adjust the timeline and concede the timeline a little bit to allow contractors to take a little more time.

“We definitely hope to see ground moving by first of August anyway.”

He says there are plans in place as to not disrupt the classroom in both schools as well. He also says the district is finding there are some concerns over sewer, water, electrical, and heating.

“We’re finding that it’s a little bit of a nightmare,” Erickson said. “I mean there’s a lot of things that are taking place behind the scenes that are requiring a lot of extra effort and frankly, just dang expensive.”

He says these expansion projects are due to capacity issues based on the state’s algorithm. Both schools are over capacity according to the superintendent. He says this also means the district will have to look at capacity issues with Star Valley Middle School in the near future as well.