NewsTribune

No summer break for JC Schools crews

District launching more than 25 maintenance, improvement projects

By Anna Campbell [email protected]

JC Schools seeks to complete more than 25 capital improvement projects this summer before students return for the 2023-24 school year.

Many are small projects, said Frank Underwood, director of safety, facilities and transportation.

The biggest projects are construction at Thorpe Gordon Elementary and Nichols Career Center and the addition of more access controls across the district, Underwood said.

The district will work on adding new access controls that allow key-fob access to certain parts of the district.

At Nichols Career Center, crews will begin building a greenhouse between the wrestling building and Thorpe Gordon Elementary. That greenhouse is

supposed to be completed in time for second semester of the 2023-24 school year.

Thorpe Gordon is in Phase 2 of its renovations.

Last year, crews created new spaces, splitting the counselor’s office and nurse’s station into separate spaces, renovating a teacher workroom and adding a restroom. Crews also added spaces for reading and math, added Pintos logos to the building, and installed a new playground.

This year, crews are adding a kindergarten playground, renovating the interior, adding central air rooftop units to replace the current window units and installing new energy-efficient windows. The district will get energy rebates.

Thorpe will also get some renovations to accommodate the shift to “Thorpe Gordon STEM Academy,” a school dedicated to involving Science, Technology, Engineering and Math in the method of instruction. STEM schools still cover other subjects like language arts, music and art, but they integrate STEM into the instruction in creative ways, resulting in more hands-on and project-based activities.

There will be a lab space attached to the library during the renovation.

That lab space will make it possible for students to work on big projects like growing plants, coding robots, or designing and engineering a machine without having to put projects away or take them apart as they would in a classroom, Troy Hogg, assistant superintendent of elementary education, told the News Tribune in October.

Of the more than 25 projects, Underwood said the Thorpe Gordon renovation is the only project he’s concerned about with the tight summer timeline. Other projects include:

• Replacing furniture across the district.

• Installing gate entries at West Elementary and the Capital City High School stadium.

• Installing mechanical shades at the CCHS gym to block sun from the west-facing windows during sporting events.

• Replacing roofs over the Cedar Hill Elementary cafeteria and West gym.

• Fencing in the Lawson Elementary playground to separate pickup and dropoff traffic from the play area.

• Installing building automation systems to control the HVAC systems at both high schools.

• Replacing floors and stalls and painting Moreau Heights and Pioneer Trail elementary schools’ bathrooms.

• Tuckpointing, or repairing the mortar between bricks, at Lawson and Belair elementary schools.

• Irrigating the CCHS baseball field and Central Office property.

• Installing charging stations for the district’s hybrid vehicles or guests at Central Office.

• Checking a few details, called “punch list items” to finish up the district’s new athletic facilities by the end of June. Those can include things like chipped or overlooked paint, outlet covers, wrapped sprinkler heads and other small finishing items.

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2023-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.newstribune.com/article/281621014711956

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