Construction To Begin Sept. 23 At East Side

With the construction season getting shorter every day, the architects and builders for the school project are eager to get started. At the Glasgow School Board meeting on Aug. 14, they decided on Monday, Sept. 23, at noon as the official ground breaking at East Side School.

Eric Hulteng, the owner’s representative for the school district in its building project, said he had met with the design team of L’Heureux-Page-Werner and the Sletten Construction team the week before and gotten a good start on the communications, the budget and the schedule of the complicated project before them.

Architect Stephen L’Heureux said they are working hard to get in the ground at East Side School soon. He showed the board the design concept for the additions to the school and the materials he recommends. The construction will be broken into two pieces, the new addition in front and another in back.

The new front entrance will be secure with two sets of locked doors and a front desk person who has control of the doors. Other areas of the school will have exit-only doors.

The multi-purpose room, serving as the cafeteria and other things, will have a high ceiling and lots of windows, because it’s pretty dark now, L’Heureux said.

The building will be kept simple, he said, so it’s fast to build on the tight schedule. He plans to use very basic materials to create a “really nice entrance without spending a ton of money.”

“East Side has moved very quickly,” L’Heureux said. “We will begin planning the new Irle tomorrow.”

“We are flying,” said Sletten’s Cliff Garness.

He has met with local plumbers and concrete, stone and glass companies to explain the work and ask if they are interested in being subcontractors.

Safety fencing of the construction areas was to start Monday, Garness said, with signage, gates and diagrams to explain the new dropoff pattern to students and parents. He had met with the police, city officials, attorneys and insurance people earlier in the day and permits had been obtained.

Trustee Dave Irving asked if these plans for East Side were the finished version.

“It’s nuts and bolts from this point. What you see is what you’re going to get,” L’Heureux said.

Irving made a motion to approve the plans and it passed. Superintendent Bob Connors said he would put color copies of the designs around town for people to see.

To make the board a big part of the process, they were invited with representatives from each grade level, staff and administrators to a “roles, goals and controls” meeting on Monday, Aug. 19.

In other business, the board approved the FY 2013-14 final budget, subject to some numbers from the state. Connors said the total mills would be 257.3, up 66.69 mills for debt service.

The new GHS principal, Shawnda Zahara-Harris, said an anonymous donor wants to set up a procedure to give one scholarship to a student in each school club. To be eligible, a student must be involved in the club all four years of high school. A new student account was approved to accept the scholarship money.

Activities director Willie Thibault said the school has given baseline concussion tests to 192 students, with the help of FMDH.

“If there is a head injury, we have baseline information to go on,” he said.

Coaches were hired for 7-8 football and volleyball.