HOWARD — The East Knox junior/senior high school renovation project is progressing on schedule to be open by the 2022-23 school year after ground broke on the project over the winter.
The majority of construction is scheduled for completion by the spring of 2022, East Knox School Superintendent Steve Larcomb said. The new building will open for school use the following fall, the Tuesday after labor day in 2022, he said.
The 1994 addition – which contains the gym, cafeteria and some offices and classrooms – is not being demolished but has begun undergoing renovations since school let out for the summer. Larcomb referred to these renovations as the “summer slam.”
The addition will be complete and ready for use again by the start of the 2021-22 school year, with the exception of a new gym floor and bleachers being installed over the summer of 2022 to allow time for environment control assessment.
Voters approved a 3.3-mill levy in November 2019 that gave the school district $19 million over 37 years to pay for the construction of the two-story structure. The project budget also includes money for additional expenses needed during construction, including modular units – which are being used as classrooms during construction – and overhead.
Ian Hopkins, assistant project manager at Elford, Inc. (the construction company completing the project), said the crew has built the new building structure up to the first floor. Soon it will put in structural steel to begin building the second floor.
“Now that school is let out, we’ve entered into the building and have started demoing,” Hopkins said.
The crew is expected to complete demolition this week. Next week it will start mechanical work on the building, such as installing ventilation. Hopkins expects the crew will be ready to begin installing the roof in August and to begin enclosing the building with walls in the fall.
Andrew Orahoske, superintendent of Elford, Inc., said once the structure is enclosed, the crew will focus on electrical work and building finishes. Then the building will undergo several inspections.
While construction has been progressing on schedule, Hopkins and Orahoske said they have faced price hikes and order delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Recently, metal has become expensive,” Hopkins noted.
The crew has also been unable to get some of the necessary screws, so they have been coming up with ways to temporarily hold structures to offset the delays.
Material lead times, the amount of time it takes to place an order with a supplier and receive it, have increased as well, Orahoske said.
“COVID has certainly thrown some ripples into our process,” Hopkins said.
Elford Inc. is operating under the Construction Management at Risk delivery method, which means it has guaranteed a maximum construction cost, which Larcomb said was approximately $16.5 million.
If construction costs more than the guaranteed price, the construction company is contractually bound to cover the excess. Conversely, if the construction costs less than that price, the district keeps the difference, he said.
While construction has been underway, Larcomb said the modular units have worked well for conducting classes, and noted that they have air conditioning – which had not been the case in the old academic building.
East Knox Local Schools reopened for 5 day a week in-person learning on Aug., 19 2020, after switching to remote learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Home economics and shop classes have been most impacted by the construction, he said.
“(Home economics classes) haven’t been able to cook in the modulars but they’ve worked around that – finding that there’s a lot of things you can prepare without having an oven,” Larcomb said, mentioning the practicality of a lesson about how to cook microwave meals that can be made in college dorm rooms.
Larcomb said the district is considering keeping some of the modular classrooms after construction is completed to help alleviate elementary school overcrowding.
The units are located between the elementary school and junior/senior high school. The district rents them for about $8,000 per month, Larcomb said.
Summer school classes are taking place in the modular units. While the Vocational Agriculture building will eventually be moved to the east side of the new high school, VoAg students and advisors will still be able to come in to work on their Knox County Fair projects this summer.
