Union County school superintendents relayed updates regarding campus construction projects to school board members during meetings held this week.
The Parkers Chapel softball field project is complete and the team can start practicing at Swilley Field, but contractors are completing “punch list” items, district superintendent Michael White said.
Crews are busy at work completing the project in the front of the schools and the exterior of the cafeteria, the Parkers Chapel superintendent said.
“We’re getting our hallway tiled up … Our students are going to continue to be able to walk through the building while they’re working in there for the time being,” White said. “Part of the cafeteria renovation was to redo the entire outside, give it facelift on the outside and they’re finishing that up. They should be finished with that at the end of next week … They’ve actually cut out the old mortar between the bricks and put the new mortar in so it’ll have a newer look, a newer finish to it.”
Junction City School District Superintendent Robby Lowe said that construction documents for the high school PEHAM building are “under review” by the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities & Transportation, state fire marshal’s office and plumbing inspectors.
“(Architect Michael Rogers) does expect to go with the bid date that he discussed with you at the last board meeting, which would somewhere around the second week of February,” Lowe said. “We’re in pretty good shape. If you noticed, the building is gone and the beginning of a band practice field you can see back there … Where the tower is back there, we’ll probably cut into that hill and then bring it down, flatten that area out and make a good, large area the band can practice on.”
Even if the review causes a delay, Rogers is confident that the building will be complete by the start of the 2018-2019 school year. The Junction City superintendent said that he and board president Jay Green are “prioritizing maintenance projects” for the summer.
“We do believe as a priority (at) the high school building should be that, new door units, taking down soffit and exterior trim and replacing it with vinyl … Those doors are horrible to deal with. We have some other things on the list,” Lowe said.
The Parkers Chapel School Board’s next meeting is scheduled at 6 p.m. Feb. 12 in the technology building. The Junction City School Board’s next meeting is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 13 in the special programs meeting room.
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.