New West Hills building takes shape on time

EAST FRANKLIN -- In the week before the start of the 2005-06 school year, administrators in the Armstrong School District were concerned that renovations at West Hills Elementary might keep them from starting school on time.

This year, there should be no such concerns.

Work continues at the West Hills site on both the existing school, which will house kindergarten through third grade and the new school for fourth through sixth grades.

"We're in pretty good shape here," said Rick Mulroy, the district's facilities coordinator. Mulroy said work at both schools should be complete in July, far ahead of the start of the 2006-07 school year.

"We've got a little bit of breathing room," he said. "We expect to bring our classroom furniture in during the second week of July."

Last year, the district waited nervously over the last weekend of August, just a few days before the start of the school year, to receive an occupancy permit at the current West Hills school, which had undergone extensive renovations last summer.

The only remaining work at the current West Hills building is in the addition being added to house the kindergarten classrooms.

Most of the work remaining at the new school is minor: installing ceiling tiles, some floor finishing and some other loose ends. The building now has permanent hook ups to all utilities and contractors are nearly ready to test its systems.

The biggest thing yet to do at the new building is the installation of the vinyl flooring in the multipurpose room, according to Kevin Ludwick, construction manager at the site.

There is also site grading that still needs to be completed at the new school.

In the kindergarten addition at the current school, contractors are still painting and installing plumbing, but the work area there is considerably smaller -- just six rooms.

Mulroy said even if things fall behind a little, the district won't be under the kind of pressure it was last year.

"We've got some time."