Due to COVID-19 and the inability to host an in-person event, the Sun Prairie Area School District (SPASD) held an intimate, socially distanced groundbreaking on May 13. The construction of West High School will be completed in time for the 2022-23 school year.

Most of the work done so far in relation to the 2019 DeForest Area School District $122 million referendum has involved planning and design. That’s about to change, as the projects transition to the construction phase. The large mound of dirt at the site of the new intermediate school, now named Harvest Intermediate School, is a sign of the switch.

Ashley Field improvements were part of the $169 million referendum that passed in April 2019 and is right on schedule. Originally built in 1953 for football and baseball, Ashley Field was also used for two other Sun Prairie High School athletics, lacrosse and soccer. The new reconfiguration eliminated the baseball field used by the Home Talent League amateur baseball team Sun Prairie Red Birds, and was turned 180 degrees with its end zones now facing north and south rather than east and west.

Findorff says it’s keeping its job sites open for now, but not requiring any employee to come to work. The company is also sharing the CDC guidelines and COVID-19 symptoms, stressing that workers need to stay safe.

Jim Yehle has been named Findorff’s president and CEO and Dave Beck-Engel is its new vice chairman. They will continue to lead Findorff alongside current chairman Rich Lynch.

The $2.2 million project for Marathon County Jail was funded through an emergency declaration in August. Estimates originally pegged the cost at $1.5 million, but an extra $500,000 in funding was approved in October for additional shoring and upgrading to stabilize the building. It was a significant undertaking. But overall the budget that we had estimated for the project, we came in at or under that budget.

Construction on the new Verona Area High School is more than halfway complete. The district decided to make the move to the new building to accommodate some of the enrollment growth Verona area schools have experienced since 2015. The new school was purposefully designed to service any future remodeling needs as the Verona area continues to develop.

When Alton Slane walks around the newly constructed areas of McFarland High School, he can see the fruits of his labor. Slane, a member of the swim team, recalls removing gear from the pool where he spent countless practice hours to later be placed in the new pool area.Slane started a Youth Apprenticeship (YA) program with J.H. Findorff & Son Inc. as a junior in October 2018 and has worked on the school since the pool and auditorium were “just holes in the ground with some walls,” he said.

Representatives from Wangard Partners, the building’s owner and developer, in addition to reps from J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., the project’s building contractor, and the Building2Learn Consortium, a nonprofit focused on introducing students to careers in skilled trades, will provide an overview of the building’s history, plans for the building’s rehab, and opportunities for the students to get hands-on training once construction begins.

Students at Bradley Tech High School interested in construction trades toured the historic Eagleknit building in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood on Wednesday Jan 8th, launching a new education program that will allow a cohort of sophomores and juniors from the school to get on- the-job training as the building is converted from an old manufacturing site into modern office space.