Monday’s Austin School Board meeting was short and simple.

Although there wasn’t too much discussed during the session, there were still some agenda items worth mentioning:

MacPhail Music Annex Project

Construction of the Austin High School annex has been ongoing.

Currently, the choir room is undergoing major renovations, and steel beams have been erected on top of the annex, indicating the start of construction to build a second level of what will become the MacPhail Center for Music.

“Construction meetings have been going very well,” Superintendent David Krenz told school board members. “The steel beams arrived a couple weeks late. Everyone’s pretty happy with the progress.”

The MacPhail Center for Music partnered with APS to add more music enrichment opportunities for students.

Although MacPhail hasalready established its success with APS through weekly visits to Woodson Kindergarten Center classrooms as well as private lessons for district students, the annex’s $14.5 million renovation and expansion project will provide additional classroom and practice spaces, according to a previous story.

So far the renovation project started on the annex’s first floor back in January, and will add about 17,850 square feet to the existing building. The choir room should be available for the start of the 2019-2020 school year, with the second floor construction of the orchestra and band spaces looking to be finished in December 2019.

The second floor will have a 13,750 square-foot addition toward the east half of the property, facing Fourth Street Northwest, and has a final time frame of wrapping up in summer 2020.

Truth in Taxation Hearing

Mandated by state law, the Austin School Board voted to set a date for the annual Truth in Taxation hearing.

Lori Volz, director of finance and operations, recommended to officials that the date should be set for Dec. 9, 201, at 6 p.m. in the city council chambers.

The board voted to approve the date, with board member Angie Goetz being absent.