Jacobson Elementary renovation progressing

By Barbara Brown
Construction on C.E. Jacobson Elementary School is going smoothly and students should be in the new classrooms at the beginning of the coming school year.
Project superintendent Dale Michalek of RJM Construction said that although there is ìa lot of stuff going onî at the job site, everything is running smoothly.
Voters approved $1.15 million in a referendum vote in April 2002 to pay for the expanded elementary school.
Vast improvements are being made daily, Michalek said. At this point, with all the walls erected and most of the wiring finished, he said things should move quickly.
Workers finished installing new sewer pipes last week and bricklayers were finishing the outside of the building.
Inside the new gymnasium, a thick concrete floor was poured. It will cure for two months before wooden slats are installed on top of it for a traditional gym floor.
Before construction even began, the scope of it was pretty impressive.
The goal was to construct a new 20-classroom building complete with all the technical upgrades necessary for computer and telephone access to each room, a new gymnasium, expanded kitchen and larger eating area.
Hurrying things along was the request to have all the construction finished on the addition before school starts next year.
The crew had quite a job ahead of them as they had to bust out and remove 12,000 cubic yards of clay and rocks and replace it with sand.
He said if the building had been erected on the clay, drainage would have been poor and flooding inside the building would have been frequent.
Michalek said the addition walls are up, cable trays for computer wires, duct work, fire sprinklers and plumbing are installed.
The crew is still waiting to install about half of the underground storm sewer piping.
The roof was being tarred last week when the area experienced a brief few days of sun and pleasant temperatures.
The building project was divided into four sections; two classroom wings with 10 classes each, the gymnasium section and the dining section.
After the addition is finished, RJM crews will begin working on the inside of the current CE Jacobson building, Michalek said.He said three classrooms will be dismantled and new walls will be installed to create two rooms.
He said after the renovations are finished, the school will have lost five classrooms, but will have gained 20 in the addition.
The renovations inside the round part of the school can occur in the fall, even after school starts, without much disruption to the daily routine, Michalek said.
While the inside of the addition seems to be a long way off from completions, Michalek said finishing the new addition before school starts is extremely feasible.
ìItís really realistic,î he said. ìThe finishes, painting, ceilings and floors are relatively quick compared to what weíve already done.î

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