MONROE – While former Packers QB Aaron Rodgers was tearing his Achilles tendon on national TV, the regularly scheduled School District of Monroe Board of Education on Monday, Sept. 11 was witnessed by zero members of the public in person, with 177 watching the video feed either live or within the next 56 hours. At that Board of Education meeting, the school board unanimously approved Huffman Keel to be the district’s owner’s representative during the upcoming Monroe High School construction project.

On Sept. 7, District Administrator Rodney Figueroa, Business Administrator Ron Olson, Director of Buildings & Grounds Rich Zentner, board president Rich Deprez and board members Terri Montgomery and Mike Froseth interviewed Huffman Keel, as well as Chicago-based LM Consultants and Milwaukee-based Cadence Consulting.

“All of the applicants we had for the position were all highly qualified … and the three companies were all capable to do the high-quality work on behalf of the district,” said Rodney Figueroa, district superintendent. “Huffman Keel had exceptional reference from their latest completed project, presented well and answered questions, which convinced the full committee that they were the best fit for our district’s needs.”

Huffman Keel is based out of Madison and has been in business since 2000. Of their many projects, they most recently oversaw the new Neenah and Verona high schools. 

Huffman Keel and Monroe district administrators will now work out a contract. An owner’s rep is responsible for representing the owner’s interests throughout all project phases — from inception, planning and design to construction, completion and closeout. In this case, the School District of Monroe and Board of Education are the owners. Huffman Keel will work as advocates for the district and board, representing their interests in order to execute their goals and objectives while providing accountability from the other contractors and team members, thus ensuring the project stays on budget and on schedule.

Huffman Keel will be on site 1-3 days a week, as well at meetings, and will be available even more frequently as needed.

Monroe High School Principal Jeriamy Jackson said that he and members of his staff have begun creating “user groups” along with the architects at Plunkett Raysich Architects (PRA). Their goal is to find ways to design their new classrooms for the uses of today, as well as having the adaptability to adjust to potential technology and education changes of the future.

The new school will be about 240,000 square feet, which is about 40,000 square feet larger than the current school. Much of the square footage will go to creative and multi-use spaces, instead of typical square box rooms built during the 20th century.

The wetland delineation was conducted on site last week, and the traffic study from Fehr Graham will take place next month, as well as the soil study. The soil study is on hold until the crops currently growing on the 70-acre B&S property are harvested. The B&S property is located along 31st Avenue on Monroe’s far east side, and an entrance from County KK to the south and up to the far east edge of the property is sought by the district.

The project is scheduled to break ground in the spring of 2024, and should be completed in time for the 2026-27 school year or earlier.

Elsewhere in the meeting, school board president Rich Deprez called for a minute of silence at the start to honor the thousands of American’s killed during the 9/11 attacks 22 years earlier to the day. 

Later in the meeting, board member Mike Froseth wanted to remind students, their families and the public about the national 9-8-8 hotline for those in a mental health crisis, as well as other local resources that are available. 

“Given a former student that graduated (and) last week committed suicide … teen suicide is a major, major, major problem, and I think we need to speak publicly about the resources that the school and the staff can take advantage of,” Froseth said, calling teen suicide a current epidemic, with almost 1,000 Wisconsin teens taking their own lives in 2022. “There are resources that the district office has for staff and students, and please don’t hesitate to reach out.”

The board and administration then went into closed session for nearly two hours to discuss 2023 compensation  proposals for both district administration and exempt staff. Both were approved.