By MIKE JAMES - The Independent
RACELAND — Plans for renovation and classroom addition to Campbell Elementary School are in the state’s hands after the Raceland-Worthington Board of Education approved the final design for the project Thursday.
The renovation project will add four classrooms and a flexible room that can be used for special needs children in a wing attached by a corridor to the main body of the school.
The rest of the school will receive major upgrades, including new roof, heating and air conditioning, windows, lights and sprinkler system.
The added classrooms will enlarge the school, just enough that it can include four classes per grade level, which at Campbell include kindergarten through third grade, according to Superintendent Frank Melvin. The Raceland Independent School District, in keeping with its small-school character, doesn’t want to grow any more than that, he said.
The renovation will bring the school, built in 1962, up to modern standards of energy efficiency, Melvin said. The heating and air conditioning system will be highly efficient, comparable to a heat pump system, and designers hope the school’s energy bill will remain about the same even with the additional classrooms.
The project won’t go out to contractors for bids until the state education department approves the design, but preliminary estimates come to around $2.7 million, project manager Don Nicholls said.
The district plans to borrow most of that and won’t have to ask taxpayers for any more money, Melvin said. The state is expected to kick in around $600,000.
The board is eyeing a second construction phase, which depends on the district’s bonding capacity, or ability to borrow money. That would add a new cafeteria and kitchen.
Other than a general concept, there aren’t any plans yet for the cafeteria phase and the board will revisit the idea in the spring.
If all goes well, construction of the addition could start early next year and be completed by the end of the school year, Melvin said. The renovation work would wait for the summer season while students are away and should be done by the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, he said.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com.
