Gilboa-Conesville Board Awards 579M in Bids for Major Project

GILBOA-CONESVILLE — Gilboa-Conesville Central School will be humming with construction activity in a few months.

The school board at its Thursday, Dec. 18 meeting awarded bids totaling $5,790,100 for a major capital improvement project. Superintendent Bonnie Johnson said the hope is that the work will start around May or June and be finished by the time students and staff report back to school in September for the 2026-27 school year.

Work both inside and outside will include improvements to roofs, parking lots and various indoor features at the school.

Bids awarded at the Dec. 18 meeting were: $742,000 for general construction to Upstate Companies I LLC, including a $625,000 base bid and alternates totaling $117,000; $2,982,000 for site construction to Byler Excavating LLC, including a base bid of $2,420,000 and an alternate of $562,000; $591,500 for mechanical construction to T. McElligott Inc., including a base bid of $532,000 and alternates totaling $59,500; $492,000 for electrical construction to Upstate Companies I LLC, including a $462,000 base bid and alternates totaling $30,000; $982,600 for roofing construction to Titan Roofing Inc., including a base bid of $301,400 and alternates totaling $681,200.

School District voters approved the project a year ago. It is estimated to cost a grand total of about $7.9 million when "soft costs" like engineering and architectural fees and other costs are factored in.

In other news from the Dec. 18 meeting, the board heard a presentation from seventh-grade Science teacher  Melissa McDonald on the annual Schoodic Ediucation Adventure Program trip to Acadia National Park in Winter Harbor, Maine in late October. McDonald said 34 students and five adults are slated to go on the five-day trip to engage in various fun and educational activities.

"It's an invaluable experience for our students," she said. "They get off their phones and get out in the world and grow tremendously." McDonald added that she hopes that scholarships from L.L. Bean will again cover a large part of the $350 per person (not including the bus) cost.

Elementary Principal Candice Gockel announced during her report that the school has received a $3,500 grant from the National School Superintendents Association that will be used to support students with sensory needs and promote an inclusive learning environment.

In personnel actions near the end of the meeting, the board accepted the resignation of art teacher Rebecca Rivenburg effective Dec. 1; approved Clyde Cole and William Cipolla as elementary basketball coaches and David Pickett as a girls varsity volunteer basketball coach; and approved Olivia Ross as a substitute PK-12 Licensed Teacher Assistant and teacher effective Dec. 19.