Written by: Nathan Morris / Feature editor
The saga of the junior high carries on with more building updates. On Sept. 14, a board meeting was held between the school board and multiple construction contractors. Ten contractors sent bids to be reviewed by the board. The final bid was approved and the junior high was auctioned off for $795,000 from Casey-Bertram Construction Inc.
March 11, an announcement to close down the junior high was released. The original systems in the building were extremely outdated and finding replacement parts or people who could fix them were rare and very expensive.
The disco and bellbottom-era school was becoming more of a burden to keep operational.
In some parts of the building, you could notice floor tiles seeping into the ground, or visually see cracks, separation, and sudden dips in classroom corners.
A fence has already appeared around the whole junior high property.
According to the construction crew, their first priority is to clear smaller things around the perimeter of the building. This includes light posts, parking lot wheel stops and other exterior building elements. Lots of space will be needed to hold debris and leftover materials.
After the perimeter is clear, multiple bulldozers will be brought in to flatten the memories of so many people.
But none of these plans are fully finalized since it’s so early in the demolition planning.
NPCS communications director Craig Smith said, “Those conversations are happening currently (among) architects, the administration and teachers.”
Although everyone has a basic idea of how to carry on the demolition, they still need to think about the details such as extra cost. The construction crew hopes to have the building demolished and the site cleared by March of next year.
On top of demolition planning, they will have to start thinking about how to expand the other schools.
The current junior high, formally NPI, will have expansions to the original building to add much more and much needed classrooms.
Same goes for Sugar Creek Elementary, now that it is k-5, even more expansions will be needed to comfortably accommodate the new grade. NPE has also had to rearrange it’s school to fit fifth grade students as well. But no expansion will be done.
So on top of planning for the former junior high building, plans for expansions to the two surrounding schools will also need to be taken into consideration. Further costs will also need to be discussed among the board.
