Uniontown board looks at new projects
As contractors work to ready one renovated school building in time for the start of classes next Monday, Uniontown Area School District’s construction project officials are planning to move forward on another building renovation. Sam Denney of project manager Fairchance Construction Co. told the school board Monday that Franklin School will be ready for the first day of classes.
“It’s going to be quite a rush to get that done. Everybody (contractors and school personnel) is working hard to get done,” he said.
Work will continue on the administration offices until they are completed in September or October, according to Denney.
Director Dorothy Grahek and Charles Castor praised the $3.2 million project with Grahek referring to the building as “absolutely beautiful” and Castor calling it a “beautiful sight to see.”
The next project to get under way is renovations to Wharton School, while the school board plans to move on to Marclay School.
Architect Mark Altman said the school board may expect to award the contracts for the Wharton School project at the September business meeting. He predicted work could start as soon as late September or early October.
Altman said the first task will be to build the addition of classrooms to the rear of the building where he said students will not be bothered. Of the playground at the rear of the building, Altman said a construction barrier would be in place and there may be a limited playground available for the students.
He said around the Christmas holiday vacation there may be some movement into the existing building for construction of a corridor. He said students would be moved into the new classrooms once the addition is completed as contractors work on existing classrooms.
Superintendent Chuck Machesky said arctitect’s drawings of the options for Marclay School may be revealed at a community meeting set for Thursday at the school.
One option is to rebuild the school next to the existing building, rebuild it next to A.J. McMullen School as a freestanding building or attach it in some way to the A.J. McMullen structure. “What we want to do is assure the people there is going to be action and Marclay is next on the list,” Machesky said.
Among other business, the school board rescheduled its work sessions for the second Monday of the month during September, October and November.
Members convened an executive session prior to voting on several personnel issues.