The Arkadelphia Board of Education on Tuesday will consider approval of the top cost of asbestos removal at the former site of Peake Elementary School.

A bid tabulation dated Sept. 14 shows an overall price tag of $89,614; of that, $64,135 is for asbestos abatement. Nabholz Construction Services provided the school district with a budget summary in May. Work on asbestos removal began at the campus in mid-September and is expected to take five weeks to complete.

Jimmy King, director of support services for Arkadelphia Public Schools, reports that the asbestos removal is almost finished. The next phase will be demolition of the old building. Nabholz, he said, opened bids for both demolition and construction of the new campus on Oct. 13 at the firm’s Little Rock headquarters. “They will be compiling all bids, checking bid specs, contractor insurance, and putting together the GMP Cost Report for board review/approval over the next several days,” King said. The bids will not be ready by Tuesday’s school board meeting, but he anticipates the board can take action by its special-called meeting on Oct. 28.

In other action items, the school board is expected to appoint a member as a legislative liaison and appoint a voting member for the Arkansas School Board Association Assembly.

Tuesday’s meeting is at 6 p.m. at Dawson Building #3, 700 Clinton St., Arkadelphia. The meeting is open to the public.