<strong>A</strong>s teachers set up their classrooms and parents buy school supplies, construction crews are wrapping up some projects at local schools and preparing for others.
Some projects, including parking lot work at Center Grove High School and building a new elementary school wing at Indian Creek Intermediate School, are set to finish just before students return for the next school year.
At the beginning of July, teachers began moving supplies and materials into their classrooms at the new Indian Creek Elementary School, and furniture, such as desks and chairs were brought in, Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson Schools superintendent Timothy Edsell said. The building will be ready for students when the fall semester begins on Aug. 2, Edsell said. Construction of the new school wing connected to the intermediate school, which cost just under $10 million, started in the spring of 2015.
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The only work left to do as of this week was an inspection of the mechanical system and a test run of the alarm system, he said.
“Everyone is anxious to get into the new building,” Edsell said.
Starting this school year, classes throughout the Center Grove school district will be able to use the new innovation center focused on STEM learning, which is housed in a remodeled former maintenance facility.
Crews also are working quickly to finish paving at Center Grove High School before school starts, assistant superintendent Bill Long said.
That work is ongoing, along with work to replace the bleachers at the high school football field and build a new press box. Much of the bleacher work is done, but the press box work will continue until the day of the high school’s scrimmage game with Thomas Carr Howe Community High School on Aug. 12, a week before the first home game, Long said.
Around the time that project is done, construction is expected to begin on the high school’s new $10 million student activity center, which will include an indoor track, four indoor courts and an expanded weight and fitness room.
Students at Greenwood Community High School will notice a similar project when they return to school this week.
Crews are currently constructing a new $4 million fieldhouse at the south end of the school’s parking lot, which will include three courts for basketball or volleyball, a two-lane track, a concession stand and locker rooms. That work is well ahead of its scheduled completion date of Jan. 1, Greenwood assistant superintendent Todd Pritchett said.
The project also included a new athletics entryway, adding air conditioning and new lighting to the high school’s main and auxiliary gyms and upgrading the swimming pool with new tiles, lighting and equipment, such as ladders and diving boards. The air conditioning, lighting and interior work to the pool is almost complete, Pritchett said.
Work on a new, $27 million middle school, which is being built near Freedom Park, is also ahead of schedule, he said. The new three-story school is scheduled to be done by January 2018, but is currently ahead of schedule and could be ready by July 2017, Pritchett said.
“The new middle school is very much ahead of schedule,” Pritchett said. “We’re very pleased with the progress of all our projects — all are ahead of schedule.”
And at Northeast Elementary School, one of the school district’s oldest schools, a new heating and cooling system was installed over the summer for a cost of just under $1 million. School officials decided on that project while finalizing the plans for the construction of the new middle school.
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A look at some of the ongoing work at Johnson County schools
Center Grove:
New press box at the football field will be completed by Aug. 12.
Crews finished installing new bleachers this week.
Greenwood:
The school district’s new, three-story middle school is ahead of schedule and could be ready by July 2017, almost six months ahead of the projected completion date.
The school’s new athletic facility at the high school is expected to be done no later than January 2017.
And work to upgrade and replace Northeast Elementary’s heating and cooling system was completed this summer.
Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson:
A brand new elementary school that connects to the district’s intermediate school will be ready for students on Aug. 2. Construction of the new facility began in the spring of 2015.
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