Parkers Chapel school construction projected completion in April

News-Times
News-Times

PARKERS CHAPEL — At a school board meeting Tuesday night, Parkers Chapel School District Superintendent Michael White announced that the school’s lengthy construction effort is expected to be complete in late April.

The district’s ongoing construction project includes an upgraded softball field, expanded, air-conditioned auditorium, renovated tennis court and secure entryways between the schools, according to previous News-Times reports.

“We did finally get a timetable on the addition project, the big project,” White said. “I don’t know how valid it is, but we have something on paper now finally. According to this, the auditorium, which will be the last thing, will be through around April 30.”

White has been in contact with CADM Architecture in regards to the cafeteria upgrade project, which was completed several days after it partially opened, he said.

“We asked for 40 days (worth of money damages due to lateness) as an initial number for us. Technically, it wasn’t that many days before we got in the cafeteria, but that number represents how much I thought we lost. There were a couple change orders that we picked up on that project along the way.”

Moving the storage room; installing an in-house washer and dryer, extra electrical outlets and kitchen equipment bring the district’s reimbursement from over $25,000 down to “about $4,800,” he said. Board members signed the closing documents for the cafeteria upgrade after White’s project update.

ERC General Contractors, an El Dorado-based company that completed the Swilley Field project past the contract’s original projection, proposed to purchase and install a new 9-by-5 foot scoreboard at the softball field in lieu of paying money damages due to delays.

“They were 143 days late on the project (regarding) getting to the point where we can at least have access to it. They requested some consideration. At the time, there were some extra heavy rain days. There was a water line that had to be moved a little bit, some electrical lines that had to be moved,” White said. “I’m not questioning any of their requests. We just knocked all of those off and knocked it down to 116 days, which converts to about $29,000 damage.”

The proposed scoreboard, which would be installed on existing poles, wasn’t in the original project and is projected to cost “somewhere about $18,000,” the superintendent said.

Board vice president Wes Taylor said, “We need one … The only I would want to make sure of is that we check on it ourselves.”

Drainage near the backstop was oversized, so it’ll be replaced with white piping and dark gray mortar agreed upon by the board. Because of rain, the netting had to be reinstalled, White said.

The district set aside $50,000 for school signage. White presented estimates for a LED message board near the athletic complex on Hwy 15 and a signature sign outside the school buildings on Parkers Chapel Road.

The $50,000 could be used to purchase Chromebooks, laptops students use in daily classroom instruction and on the ACT Aspire test, board member Lisa Murray said. She also suggested building an online presence on the district’s new website.

Parkers Chapel School Board members couldn’t agree on where the LED sign should be placed, but they did agree that it shouldn’t be mounted on the granite sign at the John Gross Athletic Complex. The signature sign, which they all agreed should be a lighted blue display, would be placed near the gym.

While board members voted to approved the district’s 2018-2019 school calendar, the board may revisit the calendar due to “childcare concerns.” Classes would begin on Aug. 13 and end on May 24, 2019, White said.

District Curriculum Director June Wells said that teachers loved having over two weeks off for Christmas before starting the second semester.

The board also approved the district’s proposed budget of expenditures with the tax levy, two student transfer requests into the district and denied two out of the district.

The Parkers Chapel School Board’s next meeting is scheduled at 6 p.m. Mar. 12 in the high school technology building.

Brittany Williams may be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter and like her on Facebook @BWilliamsEDNT for updates on Union County school news.

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