ANDOVER, Kan. — In the fall of 2020, Andover High School (AHS) students will begin their year in a new, state-of-the-art high school designed for the 21st century.

Construction started in late October on the new $61.9million school, which will be located just east, or behind, the current AHS.The current gymnasiums, weight room, locker rooms and shops will remain. The new facility will be connected to that portion of the existing building.

The new AHS is the largest project among the $188 million in bond improvements approved by voters in May of 2017. The bond issue also includes replacing Meadowlark Elementary and building storm shelters and secure entrances, a district tennis complex, upgraded athletic facilities, a middle-and high-school orchestra program, an expanded preschool program and other necessary facility improvements.

“We were hired to do a district-wide master plan study to assess their overall facilities and we were hired in early 2016,” said Malcolm Watkins, project architect and vice president of SJCF Architecture. “We’re working on all the projects for the bond issue and we’re halfway through the total bond measure work.”

The construction team also consists of Hutton Construction and Icon Structures.

Over the last year, around 170 district staff, parents and community members participated in a facilities study process to identify district needs for the future. Participants evaluated solutions for the district and reviewed finance, demographics, technology, pupil transportation, infrastructure, community research and data for each building to develop a new vision for Andover’s facilities.

In December 2016, the Board of Education accepted the MasterFacilities Plan that included renovating or expanding all 10 district school buildings, support centers and athletic facilities. In addition, it proposes options to construct new campuses for Meadowlark Elementary and AHS. The cost of these new buildings and renovations is $188.605 million, for which the district has covered in the two propositions that were approved May 2017.

The new high school will be 298,000 square feet, and will include 240,000 square feet of new construction. The new district-wide swimming facility will be 15,500 square feet of that total.

The new building will replace a deteriorating current AHS facility. It will include flexible, 21st-century learning environments and improve safety and security improvements. Existing low, dark corridors and classrooms will be replaced by multi-level, open spaces with plenty of daylight.

Classrooms will be organized by subject into two-story pods that radiate from a central area, which contains multi-use collaboration spaces along its length. The north end of the main corridor terminates in an open lecture hall space called the “Learning Stair,” and area with tiered seating.This space can be utilized for staff meetings, student groups and guest lectures, as well as a large teaching space.

“Basically the Learning Stair is kind of an open lecture hall space so it’s kind of a shared collaboration space,” said Watkins. “It’s a two-story common space within the building that has built-in risers or seats for students to gather on and has the ability for presenters to present something and a balcony area that overlooks the two-story space.”

The new school will also include a 970-seat auditorium that includes an orchestra pit, an eight-lane, district-wide swimming facility that can accommodate competitions with seating for 250, a FEMA-rated storm shelters to accommodate all building occupants, and a controlled access main entry with security camera monitoring and buzzer entry.

The post New Andover High School Construction Underway in Kansas appeared first on School Construction News.

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. — USD 475 recently broke ground on Junction City’s new high school located on a recently purchased 159-acre quarter land on the west side of the city.

SJFC Architecture and Hutton Construction of Wichita, Kan., were selected for the $105 million project to create a spacious superstructure capable of holding up to 1700 students, a top loading stadium, soccer field, tennis courts and ball diamonds.

The main 16-foot corridor will serve as the spine with four academy wings on its north side and complimentary conventional classrooms on the south.

Academies include a Freshman Success wing; Science/Engineering and Tech; Business and Information Technology; and a Fine Arts Academy. The Academy structure will start out with 14 and work towards 16 career pathways including both academic and vocational opportunities.

Chief Operations Officer, David Wild stated that having the school located on a new, unencumbered site will provide opportunity for creation of a design that will facilitate collaborative work areas, makerspaces, a student union, conventional classrooms with movable walls and other amenities fostering a non-industrial climate.

“A scatter food service system will provide a minimum choice of four entrees with a satellite serving point located near the Freshman academy,” said Wild. “The design will support open architecture with each classroom and work area having access to ambient light.”

The site includes a natural 80-foot elevation fall from its high to low end which allows for both a top loading main gym seating 2,100 and football stadium seating 5,000.

Patrons will be able to walk in at the mezzanine level while athletes will emerge onto the floor / field at ground level. The objective is to create a welcoming learning environment not unlike a college environment with student and parent choice being the driver for academic study.

“Educators are being challenged in this time to envision their respective teaching environment as it might appear years to decades from now,” said Wild.

The new Junction City High School delivers this vision through providing interactive Smart panels, large screen televisions and demonstration tables with overview capability.

The building will be populated with integrated digital informational displays serving multiple purposes. A comprehensive security system is also under development and review with the ability to seal off portions or the entire superstructure at the touch of a button. Administration staff will be located with each academy with three strategically placed offices for school resource officers with one being a control center.

Junction City High School Principal Melissa Sharp stated at the groundbreaking, “we’ve been working on the possibility of renovating or building a new high school since maybe 2014. So we’ve been at this a long time just talking about what if. The vision is there the work ethic is there and I want to see this come to fruition for our town,” according to a local news report.

The official opening for the new high school is scheduled for August 2021.

Reports from WIWB.com contributed to this story.

The post New Junction City High School Breaks Ground in Kansas appeared first on School Construction News.

SUBLETTE, Kan. – PublicSchoolWORKS (PSW) and Southwest Plains Regional Service Center (SWPRSC) recently announced their partnership to help Kansas school districts meet state and federal safety training mandates even with limited staff or budgets.

PublicSchoolWORKS has created a program consisting of 18 different online training courses to specifically address key staff training requirements driven by federal or state mandates, best practices in safety and areas of high liability exposure.

These courses run the gamut from legislation-mandated courses such as Bloodborne Pathogens training and Jason Flatt Act-mandated suicide prevention training courses as well as popular but non-mandated courses such as a Slips, Trips and Falls Prevention training and Ladder Safety training.

The SWPRSC serves 81 districts across Kansas, many of which are extremely rural and experience staff shortages. School districts with less than 100 employees can qualify for the program and receive a discounted rate through PublicSchoolWORKS partnership with SWPRSC. If a district meets this requirement – they can register by contacting Mike Ronen, the CFO of Southwest Plains Regional Service Center, who will in turn direct them to PublicSchoolWORKS for implementation.

“There is great value being provided to help our small districts,” said Ronen. “They can now provide staff with critical training without taking time away from their regular duties and can easily ensure everyone completes training. It is taking a load off of districts because it is managed for them. All they have to do is register for the program, get it set up with PublicSchoolWORKS, and start completing courses. It’s that easy.”

Once the district is enrolled, the PublicSchoolWORKS Staff Training System auto-emails employees to take their training courses, which they can conveniently access at all times and locations.

Additionally, if districts do not finish their training by the deadline, employees are notified with automated reminders to complete their training and designated administrators receive a report of employees who have not completed training so they can follow up directly. All training transcripts are saved online in the PublicSchoolWORKS system, which makes it easy to reference all training.

“We are proud to collaborate with the Southwest Plains Regional Service Center to increase access to quality safety training for small Kansas districts that before might have felt it was cost prohibitive,” said Tom Strasburger, vice president of strategic alliances at PublicSchoolWORKS. “Our vision is to enhance school safety by developing innovative programs that completely address specific safety needs or requirements, and we’re excited to see SWPRSC help its districts on the path toward making these goals a reality.”

Contributions to this report include information from PublicSchoolWORKS.

The post PublicSchoolWORKS Partners with SWPRSC on Kansas School Safety appeared first on School Construction News.

BG Consultants predicted that Manhattan’s elementary schools will reach full capacity within the next 10 years, and as a result, has made recommendations for a five-, 10- and 20-year plan for the district — all of which include new facility construction to meet the growing population of the district, said Clint Hibbs, AIA, LEED AP at BG Consultants, according to KMAN Local News in Manhattan. The current recommended five-year plan is to build a new elementary school in Blue Township where the district already owns undeveloped land. Blue Township is one of the fastest-growing communities in the district, according to BG Consultants’ calculations, with the community’s students currently being bused to Woodrow Wilson Elementary in Manhattan.

Additional recommendations from BG Consultants include a middle school expansion to prepare for the incoming elementary students that the increasing population growth will certainly need. Further recommendation from the architectural firm include the demolition of all existing mobile and annex school facilities, expansion of safety measures for each school, the addition of dedicated gym space for each of the smaller elementary schools, and an increase in bus lanes and parking for all district schools. As part of the recommended 10-year plan, BG Consultants has recommended the construction of another elementary school on the west side of Manhattan, and if the population increases as predicted in 20 years time, the addition of a third middle school and second high school will also be needed.

All of these recommendations from BG Consultants are still under consideration by the school district board, and no decisions have yet been made, according to Eric Reid, USD 33 assistant superintendent.

The post Manhattan-Ogden School District Plans for New Facility Construction appeared first on School Construction News.

The 106,000-square-foot project will include new classrooms, science and vocational labs, band rooms and art studios.

With St. Louis-based S.M. Wilson as the general contractor and Ill.-based Wight & Company as the architect, the expansion will resemble the existing buildings, including its terrazzo floors and steps, and limestone accents.

A vocational lab will be located on the ground floor and in the basement, serviced by a freight elevator. The ceiling of the basement will feature sound and vibration controls to keep lab noise from disrupting activities on the first floor.

The first floor will include the fine arts program, featuring visual, instrumental and vocal arts classes. The second floor will house the social studies programs.

Designs for the school also include a vegetation area on the roof surrounded by a glass curtain wall to be cared for by students.

Three 20,000 gallon outside water harvesting tanks will also be located at the base of the building for rain collection and irrigation for the field behind the building.
    
Officials from the contracting firm expect the project to be completed in the fall of 2012.

The post $21.1 Million HS Addition Underway appeared first on School Construction News.

The post St. Louis University Completes Major Projects appeared first on School Construction News.