SCHOOLS PROJECT Board OKs design to preserve, update Harding auditorium
WARREN -- The board of education has approved the design and the $1 million cost of the historic preservation project that will save the auditorium, colonnade and office space at Warren G. Harding High School.
The preservation work on the 1925-vintage auditorium will include a new exterior enclosure after the old classroom wings are demolished; exterior stone restoration; a new roof, boilers, house lights and fire alarm system; two new pairs of exit doors; seat repairs; electrical and plumbing repairs; and repair and painting of current doors and windows.
The historic preservation project will occur after the students are relocated in fall 2008 to the adjacent new Harding High School building.
The new $40.1 million high school is part of a $153 million state and locally funded project that also will include four new kindergarten-through eighth-grade buildings. The new buildings will replace all 13 current school buildings by mid-2009.
Assault prevention
Dr. Kathryn Hellweg, schools superintendent, told the board Tuesday she'll meet with police Chief John Mandopoulos to discuss ways to improve communications with police, parents and the public in case of any future assault on a student walking to or from school.
James L. Cline Jr., 32, of Forest Avenue Northwest is being held without bond in Trumbull County Jail on rape and gross sexual imposition charges for three such assaults on teenage girls this month.
Hellweg announced that fund raising on behalf of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts has occurred or is occurring in Alden, Garfield, Laird Avenue, Lincoln and Horace Mann elementary schools, Harry B. Turner Middle School and Warren G. Harding High School.