NEW CASTLE Update on school building

School officials have asked if they can expand the project.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- With good weather and a little luck, New Castle School District administrators are hoping the first phase of the new high school will be ready for the start of next school year.
"We may be forced to open school a little later next year, but we will have a better handle on it by late March or April. Our goal is still attainable with lots of breaks going our way such as the weather," said Joseph Martin, New Castle schools superintendent.
The $30 million building project got under way about six weeks later than expected because of a delay in state approval for the project, but district officials are working on making up the time in the next few months, said David Esposito of Eckles Architecture, the project coordinator.
Project construction managers are revising the work schedule to keep the project on track, he said.
The new campus-style school will encompass the area where the current school sits and an entire block across Reis Street. Reis Street will eventually be closed to make room for the building, and Hurricane Drive, which sits behind the new high school, will be the main access to several streets and about 50 homes behind the new school building.
Esposito said Reis Street will close as soon as Hurricane Drive opens.
Unexpected finds
He noted workers have had a few surprises when digging earth for the project, but nothing that has set the project back significantly.
Contaminated soil and some unexpected building foundations and water wells were found in the area bounded by East and Reis streets.
Two water wells, apparently dug by hand with stone around them were also found.
"Most of this stuff predates our records. It wasn't available or obvious when looking at the site," he said.
There was some additional cost incurred by digging out the wells and foundations, but nothing significant, Martin said.
Workers spent last week pouring the reinforced concrete basement walls for the first phase of the project, the academic wing, which will house most classrooms. The second phase of the project will include razing the current school and building the science and arts wing on that site.
That wing will house the theater and laboratories. The two wings will eventually be connected.
The superintendent said they hope to have the academic wing basement finished by Dec. 10 and have about 80 percent of the steel framing up by mid-February.
Seek state waiver
But some of those plans could change as school officials wait to see if they can include seventh and eighth grades in the building. School board members voted last week to ask for a state waiver that will allow them to skip the usual process when adding to a building and immediately increase the size of the project to include the junior high school.
School officials want to close Ben Franklin Junior High School and make the new building a junior/senior high school to save money on utilities and other building costs.
Esposito said that if the state approves making the project larger, the junior high classrooms would be added to the science and arts wing. Construction on that wing isn't expected to start until next year sometime. However, they will have to modify things such as water supply capacity in the first phase of the project to accommodate the extra pupils.
School officials expect to know by the end of October if the state approves of the added work. No cost estimates were available for the extra work.
Martin said he's pleased with the progress so far.
"I think it's going as well as it can with such a large project, but there is tremendous behind-the-scenes coordination of many people. If it continues this way it would really be saying something," he said.