One of the things that will greet students and parents this fall are brand new entry ways into Rossville Elementary and Middle/High Schools.
“It (the project) is moving quite a bit,” said Rossville Consolidated School District Superintendent Dr. Jim Hanna. “We’re rehabbing the entrance and it is three lanes now — one headed to the north and the other to the south. By the time school starts, it’ll be in place.”
The district is just getting a good start on a $20 million renovation project that Hanna says will take three years to complete. Hanna added the target date for the first phase is June of 2019 with the second phase focusing on the fieldhouse and gymnasium starting right after. The third phase will involve redoing the interior classrooms that were vacated.
Some of the changes already in place are is the high school office is now on the lower level with the elementary office upstairs. The middle and back part of the building is strictly for the media center and library, while the installation of new sewer lines will go from the band, agriculture and art wing to the town’s new lift station.
“We’ve started erecting steel,” said Hanna. “What will be our main entrance to the school, both elementary and high school and also the media center and library, the steel is starting to go up there. We’re still bringing in fill and doing the sanitary line as well as some other base material in the back for the ag, art and band.”
On the inside of the buildings, 10 projects are slated to be done with the overhaul of the school’s HVAC system being at the top of that list.
The school’s parking lot currently has a lot of construction materials on it and it will become even more restricted for at least a year. When the need arises, barriers in front of the building will need to pulled out further and more parking spaces will be eliminated for a time.