Wednesday, May 8, 2002
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Wednesday, May 8, 2002 |
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School board moves forward on building projects
By MICHAEL
BOYLAN
Though there aren't any students or teachers in the classrooms during the summer, there will be a lot of activity in and around the local schools this summer. According to the Board of Education's 10-year plan, the summer is used as a time to do general maintenance on the schools that require it. Schools like Fayetteville Intermediate and Hood Avenue Primary will get new carpeting and some new paint, while schools like J.C. Booth Middle School will get a new gymnasium floor and bleachers. Several things on this year's list were postponed until next year to free up funding for projects that are a priority. One priority that was added to the list at the meeting came from Assistant Superintendent Fred Oliver who said that roofing on the technology building had to be repaired. During a recent rain storm, computers had to be covered by cloths to avoid being rained on. The project will cost $137,700 and will come from the general funds. The funding for these projects either come from bond funds, which are typically used to renovate buildings, or general funds. It was necessary for the School Board to call a special session and vote on the completion of the projects because some of the projects would take a number of weeks to complete and need to begin as soon as possible. The projects to be completed this summer will include roofing at East Fayette Elementary ($471,352), carpeting and painting the entire building at Fayetteville Intermediate ($98,445), carpeting and painting the entire building at Hood Avenue Primary ($89,718) and painting the common area at Peachtree City Elementary ($10,636). All of these tasks, totaling $670,351, will be performed using bond money. Tasks being performed this summer using general funds include carpeting and painting the entire building at Sandy Creek High School ($260,167), fixing the roof over the technology building ($137,700), constructing visitor restrooms and concessions at Starr's Mill ($150,000), replacing gym floor and bleachers at J.C. Booth ($180,000), replacing the visitors bleachers and press box at McIntosh ($300,000) and renovating existing visitor bleachers at Fayette County High School ($125,000). The total for these projects is $1,152,867. Many of the projects need to be done this summer because they deal with safety. The gym floor at Booth has holes in it and though they patch them up with duct tape, the bleachers create new ones all the time, the board was told. The visitors bleachers at McIntosh were built as temporary bleachers and have been renovated once before but are in need of being replaced, while the visitors bleachers at Fayette County have no underpinning and things could fall through, including small children, the board was told. The 10-year plan allots for work to be done on every school within the10-year period. Every four years, the school's common area is painted and every eight years the entire building is repainted and the floors are redone. Fayette County High School was supposed to have some painting done there this summer, but they are holding summer school. Starr's Mill was bumped up from next summer to take Fayette's place this summer to have their common area painted, but the board postponed it along with repainting the common areas of Peeples Elementary School and J. C. Booth Middle School, saving $72,296 from the general funds. There are other projects that are likely to be done this summer as well, such as the replacing of fire alarms and intercoms at several schools and their funding will come from the maintenance and operations budget.
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