Classes begin in middle school’s new fine arts wing

Posted 4/14/16

Students start classes in the bright and modern section today (Thursday).

The 6,733-square-foot fine arts wing is part of a new middle school project that has been built in phases, with the first phase completed in 2012.

The school’s modern …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Classes begin in middle school’s new fine arts wing

Posted

Middle school students will explore the arts in three brand-new classrooms beginning this week.

The latest section of the new Powell Middle School, the fine arts wing is dedicated to band, choir and art classes.

Students start classes in the bright and modern section today (Thursday).

The 6,733-square-foot fine arts wing is part of a new middle school project that has been built in phases, with the first phase completed in 2012.

The school’s modern design dedicated to student learning sets it apart.

“I really think it’s one-of-a-kind in Wyoming,” said Todd Wilder, coordinator of support services, last week. “It can stand up to anything that’s being built in the country. We’re really excited about it.”

As with anything new, staff and students have had to make some adjustments, but they have “responded incredibly throughout this year,” said Jason Sleep, middle school principal.

“The new school has been a realization of what a physical structure can truly bring to the learning process,” Sleep said in a April 5 report to the Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees.

The state is funding the new middle school project, which is estimated to cost roughly $16.8 million.

Students started the school year in a new two-story classroom building in August.

Most of the old middle school building was demolished last summer, with the exception of the gym and one-story music/art section. Choir, band and art classes continued in the old section throughout this school year as Groathouse Construction crews and subcontractors built the new fine arts wing. Students have walked outside, around the gym, to access music and art classes.

As construction crews put final touches on the new wing, students walked a little slower, trying to get a peek into the building, Wilder said.

“There’s a lot of excitement among the students,” he said.

For acoustics, the new band room features 20-foot high ceilings and the choir room’s ceilings are 16 feet high, Wilder said.

Along with access to an outdoor art patio, the art room includes a separate area for ceramics.

The wing is connected to the school at the commons area and gym. The gym doors open into the new wing’s spacious hallway area, which will feature art displays and seating areas.

With similar design features as the classroom section and commons area, the fine arts area is a natural extension of the main building, Wilder said.

“It’s all one campus,” he said. “When we’re done with the gym renovation, it’ll all just blend.”

Gym to be renovated this summer

From the flooring to the lights — and everything in between — the middle school gymnasium will undergo major renovations throughout the summer.

“As far as the systems go, everything is new — all new electrical, all new plumbing, all new mechanical,” he said. “The only thing that’s going to be old in this building is the actual structure.”

Originally, the gymnasium renovation was slated for last summer. But given all the work with demolishing the old classroom section and finishing the new building, the gym work was postponed until this year.

The gym must be completed by August when school starts, Wilder said.

“That puts a lot of stress and risk on this summer, too, because all that work is still there to be done,” he said. “But we’re at the end, and we have to do it.”

Groathouse and subcontractors have done everything they can to be ready for it, he said.

The gym’s new roof already has been finished. All of the lighting has been updated in the gym, but must still be finished in the locker rooms.

The locker rooms will undergo a complete overhaul. They will no longer have open showers, but more private shower areas. All of the floors and walls will be retiled, Wilder said.

Demolition of old music/art wing

Demolition of the old music/art wing is slated to begin May 6 and wrap up May 30, Sleep said.

“It can start coming down, even while school’s going,” Wilder said.

Kids and staff are no longer in the old section, and the hallway connecting it to the building will be closed off during demolition, except if there’s an emergency evacuation, he said.

One section of the old music/art wing — a physical therapy/occupational therapy room and a portion that will be used for storage and a boiler room — will not be demolished.

Outside, crews are working on a new parking lot on the campus’s west side, and also are on track to finish all of the landscaping this summer.

The mild winter and warm spring weather has helped, he said.

“They were able to start doing site work sooner than they anticipated to,” Wilder said.

‘Unforeseen circumstances’

The old middle school building included sections built over several decades, as early as the 1930s.

“It was a hodgepodge,” Wilder said of the old school.

Roofing over the old music/art section dated back to the 1930s and 1980s, and the entire roof was tested for asbestos.

“We’ve had three different sets of tests done by three different labs with three different results,” Wilder said.

Initially, tests showed one side had asbestos and the other didn’t. A second test by a different firm then showed the reverse.

“The asbestos abatement contractor said you can’t take a positive test and turn it into a negative,” Wilder said. “So, we thought we needed a tie-breaker.”

A third test by a third lab said neither side had asbestos.

Wilder said they sent results to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s asbestos program coordinator for guidance on how to proceed.

If the entire roof is found to contain asbestos, Wilder said the district has money in the budget to cover the abatement costs.

“These are unforeseen circumstances, and we have contingency money in the project for these kinds of things,” he said.

Another unexpected complication is the gym’s tartan floor, which contains mercury.

“Tartan floors from 1982 and older had the possibility of having significant amounts of mercury in them,” Wilder said.

The flooring is safe, because the material is encapsulated, he said.

“There was never any danger of mercury emissions for kids,” he said.

But when crews are pulling out the flooring, there’s the possibility of mercury emissions, Wilder said.

“So that floor has to be abated now,” he said.

The mercury levels are high enough that the material can’t go into a regular landfill, so it must be transported to a hazardous material landfill in Idaho, Wilder said.

“These are just hiccups you run into when you’re dealing with these older buildings,” Wilder said.

Comments