Kimball breaks ground for school projects

By John Messelt, Kimball Schools SuperintendentGround was broken on April 12 on the East side of the high school, commencing a year and a half of renovation and construction projects. (click on the headline for the main story)We had our groundbreaking ceremony on April 12, and then over the spring break the digging began. They started by changing our hookup to the water main. We have extended our break this spring to accommodate the work that needs to be done. They have to make the change and let the water sit in the new pipes for one day before they submit the water test for analysis. Then it will take a day for the analysis to occur and, hopefully, the test will come back okay on Wednesday, April 18, and school will start up on April 19 at our regular time.

With that out of the way, they will begin digging on the southwest corner of the current building and begin establishing footings for the new walls. The building will start before school is out and many of those walls will be started. As soon as school is out, the current wall on the east side will be removed and the old part will be connected to the new. The plan is to complete new classrooms on the southeast corner by next fall.

During the last month of school, they will begin to dig out the atrium area. They will remove the south entrance by the gym giving them access to the atrium area where they will be removing dirt and replace it with footings and new fill. They hope to get that area under a roof before fall; it will be used to store materials and serve as a work area during the winter.

When school is out, they will also start to remodel the rooms along the north side of the building from the east entrance (including Room 200) to the entrance at the middle of the north side. They will have several classrooms ready along the north side of the building for the start of school this fall.

Around Christmas break they will have the Media Center completed, and during the holiday break we will move the media center and a couple more classrooms will be ready. That will allow the contractors to start remodeling the area that currently houses the media center.

During the summer of 2002 they will complete all areas and be ready for the start of the 2002-2003 school year. We will be living in a mess for awhile, and we hope everyone can be patient with the inconveniences that occur. It will be an interesting year, to say the least, but the final result will have its rewards. The Kimball area will have a school building of which everyone can be proud. As the construction workers continue to improve the facility, we will continue to work to improve the programs that it houses.