PROGRESS.3.23
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Progress 2019
Education
Construction underway for many county schools
By Michael Shine
Staff Writer
Over the course of the 2018-19 school year, most Union County schools have planned for, started or completed physical changes to their facilities. These range from repairs to the Administration Building at South Arkansas Community College to renovations at Parkers Chapel to new buildings in the Junction City and El Dorado districts.
SouthArk
After the fire in the attic of the Administration Building last spring, South Arkansas Community College is working steadily to get it back in working order for the fall semester.
The 114-year-old building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places as the 1095 Junior College Building, was struck by lightning around 10:30 p.m. April 13, 2018, as severe thunderstorms moved through the area. The El Dorado Fire Department spent the night, and well into the next day, fighting to extinguish the blaze.
The building was unoccupied at the time and no one was hurt, though it did put an abrupt stop to the first annual South Arkansas Literary Festival.
Despite the fire being contained to the attic, smoke and water damage made its way throughout the building, as millions of gallons of water were used to put out the flames. SouthArk President Barbara Jones said her office was the hardest hit because of its placement in the building.
However, not everything in the building was destroyed. The famous
signature of Elvis Presley, which was on the wall of the attic, remained intact. It’s been placed in a display box and moved to the SouthArk Library.
The first step in the process once the fire was out was to have Metro Disaster come in to remove anything that was wet. Jones said this included carpet and sheet rock on the walls.
With all the moisture, Jones said, there was mold in the building that needed to be fumigated out.
Jones said that process took until the end of August. In the meantime, the college had to look for an architect – which ended up being Taylor Kempkes Architects, based in Hot Springs – and put the project out for bid.
In November, Flynn Co. was the low bid, with consideration for the historical aspect of the project, at roughly $3.6 million. The board also approved paying an additional $215,000 to expedite the process.
As a result, the project really didn’t start until December. It includes putting in all new electrical, fiber lines for phones and computers, an elevator and HVAC system. Jones said when it comes to those elements, there is a slight positive to the project.
“It was an old building, it had been renovated many, many times,” Jones said. “It’ll come back with everything new. The fiber was probably newer, but it was installed years ago. All of that will be brand new and we’ll be able to have it in one place. ... We’ll be able to do some things that are a little more up-to- date and (Americans with Disabilities Act)
Michael Shine/News-Times
Restoration: Barbara Jones, president of SouthArk, stands among construction material in the college Adminis- tration Building.
compliant.”
Jones said the current
projected completion date is in mid-August, shortly after the beginning of the fall semester. The original completion date was set for July but pushed back because more problems were uncovered during the process.
One such setback was when some of the drainage pipes in the basement broke. It’s unclear whether they broke because of damage or because of the added pressure of the fire, but officials are assuming it’s a bit of both.
Another setback was when they realized that some of the joists were flexing. Jones said she was told the joists under the floors were still strong and sturdy but some were starting to
bend. As a result, they had to go through and add some in those areas to help keep the floors steady.
Because the building is on the historical register, there’s certain details that need to be adhered to in order to keep that status. Jones said they need to pay special attention to things like the plaster, molding, tin ceilings, doors and chair rails.
When it comes to the staircase Jones said there’s damage under it, but officials are still assessing as to what degree. If it’s not too bad, they may only need to replace some parts of the staircase, but if it’s more severe then the whole thing may need to be replaced.
The college is taking the chance to improve the building, move things around and reconstruct rooms to better suit current needs.
Jones said the bottom floor is going to be redesigned as a learning commons. The area will include the tutoring center, distance learning, recruiting and student government association.
Jones said this is part of the college’s master plan. She noted they were originally looking at expanding the library, but with a push for more online courses, this seemed like a better way to go.
The second floor, she said, will be for financial offices, human resources, the business office and the foundation. The third floor will be her office, the office for the vice president of academic affairs and offices for the institutional effectiveness and research team.
“We took the opportunity to move people around,” Jones said.
The building was named in honor of former board trustee Charlie Thomas the night before the fire.
“We can do the appropriate naming, put it up on the wall, have the ribbon cutting and all that," she said. "We have the letters, we ordered them and we were going to have a naming ceremony in May last year, but that was postponed.”
Parkers Chapel
In 2018, the Parkers Chapel School District finished a roughly $8.5
million renovation project that was started in May 2016.
S u p e r i n t e n d e n t Michael White said the renovations were mostly focused on safety and size. The school added six new classrooms by connecting two buildings with a hallway, adding table room to the cafeteria and creating an auditorium for school assemblies and other large events.
The project also added two large common rooms that can house all students in case of a tornado warning. The hallway that increased the number of classrooms also serves to keep students from needing to go outside in between classes and both entrances to the school now have automatic- locking doors that require all visitors to check in with one of the offices before going into the main part of the school.
Two large AC units were installed in the gym for temperature and humidity control.
The stage and classrooms in the cafeteria were removed to allow for more space, while the serving line was moved and expanded to two lines, and a small projector was installed.
An auditorium large enough to seat over 400 people was created. It includes a screen and projector system, and the schools have added a drama program which will use the auditorium for productions.
Additional security cameras and door locks were installed. The door locks are timed based on the school schedules and are only unlocked when students are moving between classes.
The parking lots and bus loop were asphalted, in part to avoid dust being tracked through the schools.
The softball field was renovated with a new press box and covered bleachers.
An LED message sign was installed at the sports complex on Highway 15 as a way to get announcements out to the community.
The old tradition of putting names of graduates in the sidewalk has been shifted to printing bricks with the names of graduates that
are placed along the sidewalk in front of the school.
“Someone made the comment that ‘we were breaking a tradition up,’” White said. “When it was decided that all the sidewalks needed to come up, I told them that unless you believe that the laying of a sidewalk was the tradition, we were not. The tradition is to memorialize every graduate from Parkers Chapel and we are continuing that. All we did was change the mechanism for that tradition.”
White said the work isn’t necessarily done. The school board is still looking into other renovations or additions that the community thinkswouldimprovethe schools.
Junction City
The Junction City School District has been working on an additional building to the high school campus in the form of an Art and Activity Center.
The building, which will be able to host physical education, health, sports medicine, art and band classes, started construction in fall 2018, but the project was submitted to the Arkansas Division of Academic School Facilities in February2016.
High School Principal Joy Mason said the district had to remove the old gym because it was condemned after the new gym was built, which meant the school lost its area for health and PE.
“Any time students had PE, they were taken to the new gym by bus or taken to the city park to walk,” Mason said. “It worked, but this building will take care of PE classes, it’ll take care of a place for health. It will also be an area where other activities can take place after school hours.”
Mason said the school district decided to add art and music to the new building because those areas have been housed across the street at the elementary school since the ’80s. She said this will allow those areas to come back to the high school campus so that students aren’t having to
See WORK, Page 2C
Damage: This photo shows damage sustained to the SouthArk Administrative building following a fire that happened in spring 2018.
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