By Angie Keil

A lot has happened since Nov. 4, 2008, when almost 60 percent of South Lake Tahoe voters approved Measure G for $64.5 million.

The Master Plan that was developed by a group of citizens, staff, and others between December 2007 and February 2008 outlines plans for new construction and modernization at all schools through fall 2013. The original time line was already pretty adventurous, but Joe Stewart of SMC Contracting announced Tuesday night that they have a new goal of having the CTE Building ready for occupation after spring break next year.

Superintendent Jim Tarwater went chronologically through significant events that have occurred since 2007, when the district began to apply for matching funds from the state. To date, approximately $27 million has been promised to the district, with the first $6 million being released in the next couple of weeks. In order to get the funds, the district needed to pass a bond measure. The first attempt, Measure A for $87 million was unsuccessful, but Measure G ensures that the district qualifies for the matching funds.

South Tahoe High recently applied for another $2.2 million for a Sports Medicine component. It will find out in February if that’s a go or not.

Stewart and Steve Morales, district facilities director, reported that things are going well on the two buildings currently under construction.

CTE (Career Technical Education) is a two-story 29,860-square-foot building, which will house the auto-transportation classes on the first floor and the construction-art-architectural design classes on the second floor. Students from the latter classes have been visiting the site, hard hats and all, regularly to study the construction.

The other 29,240-square-foot two-story building will be mainly for classrooms, mostly in the math department.

While all of this construction is going on, Morales said the planning team is working on the media arts and design expansion which will be a dramatic improvement to the entry of the school and will go out to bid in spring 2010.

South Tahoe Middle School projects will also get under way with a new permanent sixth-grade building, which will replace those old portables.

In case you’re not familiar with the all of the projects which were included in the Measure G Bond Program, you can view them and a lot more at www.ltusd.org/bond.php.

Stewart addressed some recent concerns from Carpenters’ Local 1789 about hiring local workers. He said that approximately 30 percent of the work on the CTE building, and 40 percent of the work on the ORG building has gone to local workers. He is making every effort to encourage the use of locals, but subcontractors have difficulty finding qualified workers in particular trades who can handle such a volume of work within the time lines.

Morales said he will be meeting with Mike Berg of the Carpenters’ Union in the near future to discuss this further.

Student board rep David Stewart echoed the excitement about the new construction. He summarized it in two words, speaking for his fellow seniors, – “pure jealousy!” However, he said that it’s a painless process and it’s great to watch the buildings come together.

Angie Keil is executive assistant to the LTUSD superintendent.