While it’s still at least a year away from completion, a construction and renovation project to connect all of the Webster County School District’s Dixon campus facilities — including the high school, elementary building, and Area Technology Center — into a single complex has progressed to a point that the finalized shape of it can be envisioned if not actually seen.
On Friday, Webster County School District Superintendent James Kemp offered a walk-through of the construction site that will include approximately 15 new classrooms, an auxiliary gymnasium, a new media center double the size of the high school’s existing one, and other features.
The tour began at the corner of the new structure where the new gymnasium will stand. The concrete flooring for the facility has been poured, and the metal posts that will hold the roof up are all in place, as is the roof itself. Workers from Peyronin Construction, the company contracted to perform the work, as well as several sub-contractors, were working on the site during the tour on Friday. Currently, Kemp said, work is focused on finishing lay-out of the “shell” of the entire new building area, but added that work was also proceeding in parts of the newly built construction area as well, something that was apparent during the tour.
The gym, when finished will be divided by a single hallway that runs the length of the new construction area and connects with the existing high school at the corner of the current English department wing. That building, which is not directly connected to the high school, is temporarily closed due to the close proximity of the construction, and Kemp pointed out the corners of the building itself have been “cut” to allow the gym to connect to it.
The tour continued back toward the annex area of the existing WCHS/Dixon Elementary, with a stop along the way as Kemp pointed out one of two brand new 70-ton air conditioning units setting atop the roof of the high school facility. The units, he said, will help cool the gymnasiums and other areas that currently don’t have that capacity. Of particular concern, as has been discussed at many Webster County Board of Education meetings, is the need to keep the gym cool during graduation services. It is often hot inside the gym around that time. Kemp said the new air conditioner units should help alleviate the issue.
From there, the next stop on the tour was a roughly 4,300 square foot facility, anticipated to be the home of the high school’s new media center. At close to double the size of the existing media center, Kemp said the new facility would allow for more books and more resources to be housed inside.
The new library, which right now remains little more than a shell with only a concrete floor and some construction equipment inside a bricked-off section of building, wasn’t the only such area to be awaiting the finishing touches. Near the future media center stands an another newly constructed building: an incomplete expanded 30-to-40 section directly behind the WCHS annex and cafeteria area. The section is currently separated from the existing room, but is expected to be opened up to become part of that section of the campus.
Next, the tour moved outside again and walked down the length of the building, where workers were busy mixing concrete for construction of new walls in the area directly in front of the Webster County Area Technology Center, once a large parking lot. Around the corner, a pair of hallways — one stretching northwest, the other northeast — join in front of what is expected to serve as a large computer lab-style facility. The entire wing, which also consists of 15 new classrooms up and down both hallways, is covered with concrete slabs that Kemp said will allow the hallway and adjoining rooms to serve as a tornado shelter for students in the event of such an emergency. He said this is something the existing facility doesn’t currently provide.
One of the hallways continues toward the ATC building, though access through the facility’s forward-looking outer doors are currently locked for students’ safety. Instead, pedestrian traffic has been diverted to the side of the building, and temporary safety fences have been installed to indicate where students are supposed to walk back and forth between the high school and ATC campus.
Along the hallway of the new classroom section that will eventually connect with the ATC, Kemp pointed out several spots on the wall that have been cut away to allow for connection points as the work continues.
Kemp seemed confident the project will be finished in time for the start of the 2010-2011 school year, the projected goal for completion of the construction and renovation. The total cost of the project is just under $10 million, and is being paid for through issuance of bonds awarded by the state’s “Urgent Needs” program.
