In April 2019, the Fond du Lac community showed strong support for the Fond du Lac School District’s facilities referendum.  The referendum total $98 million in improvements across 14 schools. With such a large project, it was broken down into three phases between 2020 and 2022. C.D. Smith was awarded the Construction Manager on the referendum work.

Phase 1 construction was recently completed which included work at Waters, Pier and Chegwin Elementary Schools as well as Theisen Middle School. Construction started in late March after each school hauled everything out of the schools in semi-trailers and put in storage to make way for remodeling work. Over the course of five months, C.D. Smith crews completed installing new doors & hardware, new ceilings, flooring, paint, security upgrades, added WIFI, and LED lighting throughout at all the schools.  Substantial Completion was 8/21/20 with teachers moving back 8/24/20 and students returning to school 9/1/20.

In June, the owner made the decision to upgrade all their data in the four schools to CAT 6.   The late change made for a common challenge across the projects. Through solid teamwork and adaptability, the crews implemented the CAT 6 upgrade.

Preconstruction work on Phase 2 is currently underway, with Phase 2 construction slated to start January of 2021. Phase 2 will include work on Roberts, Evans, and Parkside Elementary Schools as well as Sabish and Woodworth Middle Schools. Phase 3 construction will follow, with construction start early 2022. The final phase will include updates to the Fond du Lac High School, Lakeshore ES,  Riverside ES, Rosenow ES, and STEM Building.

School Highlights

 Waters Elementary School

• Opened up exterior walls and installed larger windows to allow more natural light
• New finishes in all classroom, cafeteria, music room, and media center
• Refinished wood gym floor

Pier Elementary School

Size: 60,812 SF of remodeling
Unique Features: 

• New gym floor to replace the old VCT floor
• Infilled old music room floor and converted into new Special Ed Classroom
• Renovated administration areas
• Added air conditioning to the school

 Chegwin Elementary School

Size: 3,682 SF Administration & classroom - 2 story addition | 60,244 SF of remodeling
Unique features:

• New Media Center
• New Stem Lab
• Renovated classrooms

Theisen Middle School

Size: 2,665 SF Administration Addition | 110,000 SF of Remodeling
Unique Features: 

• Infilled floors in existing band room and completely rebuilt area
• New finishes in Cafeteria, classrooms, resource center and bathrooms