In June 2020, the Fulton 58 School District, along with the community, passed a no-tax-increase $27.5 million bond issue, Proposition S.
All three of the district’s elementary schools received new secure entrances and updated electrical and plumbing. The parking lots were redone at Bush and McIntire schools.
“That project is completed and now, as you can tell out front of the high school, we are getting started on the high school project,” Superintendent Ty Crain said.
At the high school, there will be security updates at the entrance, with a secure vestibule featuring improved lines of sight, access controls and a bullet- resistant transaction window with glazing film. New administration spaces will be added, which will be relocated to the new main entrance for improved visibility to the front approach. The new spaces include reception; offices for the principal, the vice principal, support staff; a conference room; a staff restroom; and storage. The nurse’s area will be relocated to the addition near the administration spaces. The nurse’s area will include a waiting area, a nurse desk, open rest space, an exam room, a restroom, a Health Services Director’s office and storage.
The school will also be receiving a new competition gymnasium with 1,500 bleacher seats, six retractable basketball goals, three volleyball standards, five event restrooms, six locker rooms and storage. The boys and girls locker room additions will have 60 lockers each, toilets, showers, sinks and coach’s office. There will also be two smaller visitor locker rooms with 28 lockers each and restrooms.
“If you’ve been in our high school to an event, we just have a couple of small restrooms there,” Crain said. “There’s going to be event restrooms that’s going to be located between the current gym and the new gym so a number of new restrooms there as well as a couple of restrooms by the theatre lobby.”
The theatre is also getting renovated with new restrooms, a new sound system, LED color-changing stage lights, 250 new theatre seats, added lobby space and additional storage.
There will be new and additional sinks in the art classrooms. The choir room will receive reconfigured storage space, additional caswork, shelves and hanging rods, and removal of existing built-up risers.
Behind the scenes, the school will receive infrastructure upgrades. Additional security cameras will be installed, and existing cameras will be upgraded. Electrical circuits will be traced and labeled with new panelboard labels. Electrical distribution equipment and branch panels will be replaced due to age, and networking racks will be relocated to dedicated closets with dedicated conditioning. Additional upgrades include a new fire alarm panel and domestic water heater, and updated plumbing system with new battery-operated flush valves and faucets.
“That’s probably one of the largest parts of the project other than the new construction,” Crain said. “And those will be things taking place in the summer time when we don’t have students there.”
On Tuesday, the district broke ground to begin the high school project.
“It was great,” Crain said. “We had all seven board members there, representatives from the Architect Alliance, who designed the project, as well as Nabholz, who is the construction managers on the project.”
As the project moves forward, the main entrance to the high school will be closed off. The new main entrance has been moved to the back of the building, located between the high school and athletic complex.
“We went in with a lot of planning to make it run smooth, and it’s got a little bit better every week,” Crain said. “With any kind of major construction like this, there’s definitely some inconvenience, but in the end it will hopefully be well worth it with the spaces that are being created. We will continue to work to address those concerns as they come up and make it as convenient as we can moving forward.”
The remaining pieces to the bond issue is the Fulton Middle School project. The designs for that project are currently in progress and should be done within the next few months.
The project is scheduled to be complete in May 2023.
For more information on Proposition S, visit www.fulton58.org/prop-s-construction-plans-963aa112.