The Logan County school board heard a report from Ross Tarrent architects about an addition to the Olmstead School on Tuesday at their regular monthly meeting and the district’s facility committee will be meeting on Tuesday, March 19 at 7 p.m. at the central office to okay the project.

The purpose for the addition will be to move the preschool classroom from the second floor of the building to the ground floor.

The addition has become necessary because of a state law that requires all preschool classrooms to be on the ground floor by the 2014-15 school year.

“Instead of renovating a room on the ground floor, we will just be putting on an addition to the building - if the facility committee approves it,” Kemp said. “We’ll also have another classroom as part of it that will be used as an art room and we will enclose the walkway from the main building to the gym so that the children don’t have to walk outside.”

Currently the Olmstead gym has just a covered walkway and students must go outside to move from the school to the gym.

The addition will be built in the area between the main building and the gym, Kemp said.

“We’ll also address some safety concerns by putting in a new entryway to the building that is better than the ones that were used when that building was constructed,” Kemp said.

Kemp said that the bids will likely be opened this summer.

The construction would likely begin around the time school starts back in August.

“The architect thinks it take about eight months to be completed,” Kemp said.

The addition is estimated to cost around $770,000.

Olmstead is different than most two-story schools in that the younger grades are upstairs while the classrooms for older students are on the ground floor.

“I wasn’t here when that was decided, but it was approved by the state at the time,” Kemp said.

Kemp said that there is no plans to move any other grades downstairs when the preschool is moved to the ground floor.