LINDEN — Administrators at North Montgomery Schools hope to see district-wide renovations end before school begins Aug. 6.
Though upcoming warranty walkthroughs and minor punchlists signify the finishing process, North Montgomery Director of Business Jim McBee said it will be a challenge to get everything done before students begin returning to campus
“(The Skillman Corporation) usually will walk the building with you when you get close to that time to try to take advantage of all those warranties,” McBee said. “We’re doing that July 13 because we don’t want to do that while school is in session.”
Due to ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns, administrators agreed Monday during the first in-person meeting since March that having persons deemed unnecessary on campus during the school day should be avoided.
“We’re making an effort to say, ‘We’re not going to have extra people walking around our buildings if we don’t have to,’” McBee said, “so we’ll do a final walkthrough for the warranties, and we’re still going to do a punchlist — kind of a combination of things to try to wrap these projects up ... and worked out before school starts.”
Some minor issues McBee said are already on the final punchlist include noisy heating and air conditioning units at Pleasant Hill.
“Any of the things we catch, the warranties will take care of,” he said.
Pleasant Hill, Sugar Creek and Sommer elementary schools have undergone radical interior transformations in the past two years to increase security and improve capabilities in the classroom.
Turning to the newly named North Montgomery Middle School and its neighbor North Montgomery High School, which have also seen significant interior changes in the cafeterias, front offices and media centers, McBee said lighting projects around campus are nearly complete, as well.
“We’re on the last push of getting those projects done,” he said. “Again, we’re pushing to have everything wrapped up before school starts. Getting the punchlist and everything done before school starts is probably going to be a challenge.”
Crews will be notified of daytime restrictions to the buildings. It is hoped that the prospect of limited work on evenings and weekends will give crews incentive to complete their work before Aug. 6.
Lighting projects are also nearing completion in the high school gymnasium, auditorium and around the football field, but still have some steps that need to be met.
“We’re waiting on the lighting fixtures, and some of them may not get in until later in July,” McBee said. “We’ll have some decisions to make of how we’re going to do the work, based on when we get (the fixtures).”
One of the more noticeable lighting projects will be over the football/track-and-field stadium.
“We did some boring; we have a resolution of how we’re going to put the lights in,” McBee said. “We’re just now kind of finding (that) we had to put a casing down to hold the sand and all of that back (for the poles), and we only have a three-week lea time to get what we need.”
In the meantime, the district and crews from The Skillman Corporation and Freitag-Weinhardt, Inc. will work hard to be out of students’ paths come Aug. 6.
“Nothing is easy, and with COVID it’s been even harder when you run into problems,” McBee said. “But we’re working through it.”
