End of an Era at Sevastopol School

Two stone shields and the cornerstone from the 1924 section of Sevastopol School will go into historical features inside the school when the addition is completed. Submitted photo/Kyle Luedtke.

Old pieces are available for purchase

by CRAIG STERRETT

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Peninsula Pulse contributor

School’s out for the summer in the Sevastopol School District, but part of the school building is down forever.

A large excavator methodically began demolishing the oldest portions of the kindergarten-through-12th-grade Sevastopol School in Institute on June 10. Within 36 hours, the subcontractor, Ostrenga Excavating, had knocked down one corner and one-fourth of the 97-year-old portion of the school.

Not every piece of the three-story-high section will wind up in the landfill. Two stone shields from above the front doors, the 1924 cornerstone from the old north side of the school and some bricks will be saved for a small monument in the new part of the school. And eventually, the district will sell bricks from the demolished portion of the building. 

“We’re selling bricks for a dollar,” said Superintendent Kyle Luedtke. “Those aren’t available yet because they have to separate the materials and put them in a pile where we can safely get them to people who are interested.”

Those who want to buy certain other pieces from the building will have their chance as well. Luedtke said that Ralph Bochek will schedule an auction to sell items from the old shop classrooms that will not go into the new industrial-arts and vocational-education section.

“Other items we were not able to salvage went to Bayside Salvage and are on consignment there,” Luedtke said. The larger mementos at the shop at 14 S. Madison Ave. in Sturgeon Bay include cabinetry, some chairs and tables, and more than a dozen banks of lockers.

Ostrenga is performing the demolition for $540,000, Luedtke said. Asbestos-abatement costs for the old portions of the school are not yet in.

Construction remains on schedule for the $25 million addition to the school, with classrooms taking shape, the greenhouse virtually completed, and construction of the new industrial-arts and vocational-education section furthest back on the timetable.