CCSB Approves Bid for Cafeteria

RISON - The Cleveland County School Board approved a bid of $865,000 from Brody Richardson Construction of Sheridan to build an addition to the Rison School cafeteria that will provide space for more seating as well as a third serving line. Meanwhile, a new gym and upgraded security measures were among the projects that the Cleveland County School District included in its latest Facilities Master Plan. The plan will now be submitted to the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation. Those items and more were addressed during the school board’s regular monthly meeting Monday night. Superintendent Jerrod Williams said only two bids were submitted for expanding the school cafeteria. Brody Richardson Construction had the lowest of the two bids with the other coming in at more than $1 million. Williams told the board they pursued other companies to make bids, but none responded. The district is using a combination of COVID funds, state partnership money and money from the district’s building fund to pay for the project. Plans are to use $372,079.85 left over in the district’s federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund to go toward the project as well as $339,325.70 in state partnership funding. Williams said the district will need to use $201,591.45 from the building fund to cover the remaining balance of the project. Williams said more than 1,700 square feet will be added to the north side of the cafeteria facing the parking lot. He said the roof line will be about a foot below the existing roof line of the cafeteria. While the majority of the expansion will provide additional seating for students during lunch, it will also convert an existing office space into a third serving line. He said the new addition will also include space for a manager’s office as well as additional space for dry storage. The bid also included remo...