STRUTHERS SCHOOLS Board approves '02-'03 calendar

Construction of a high school is slightly ahead of schedule, the superintendent says.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- All pupils here can expect an early start to next school year and a three-week Christmas vacation to enable the move from the current high school to the new one being built next to it at the beginning of calendar year 2003.
Normally, classes here start after Labor Day. But next academic year, school will start Aug. 21 for teachers and Aug. 26 for pupils, with classes ending Dec. 13 and resuming Jan. 6, under a calendar the board of education adopted Tuesday. Teachers will be busy Jan. 2 and 3 moving into the new high school. The last school day for both pupils and teachers will be June 6, 2003.
All of the steel has been delivered for the $13 million, two-story high school, and it's about 25 percent complete and running slightly ahead of schedule, reported Superintendent Sandra DiBacco. "Having it here really does expedite the project," she said of the steel.
The two-story, $10 million elementary school now under construction on Ninth Street off Elm Street will be fully enclosed by the end of this week and is scheduled to open in August. "They're beginning to prepare for finishing work inside," she said.
Middle school: On Tuesday, the board approved advertising for bids for renovating and expanding the middle school, a project estimated to cost $5.6 million. That job is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2003.
The construction is part of a $34.7 million project for which the state is supplying $29.8 million and the remainder is coming from a bond issue approved by the district's voters. The $34.7 million figure includes architectural, construction and demolition costs.
The board also accepted retirement notices from Robert Noble, high school choir director, and Carol Campbell, high school business education teacher, effective at the end of this school year; and Susan Missik, accounts payable clerk in the board office, retroactive to Feb. 1.